Real Estate Selling

Slow Market! People jumping off the bandwagon that they were riding on for five or six years, the real estate bandwagon.

Thats a big mistake. Real estate is still the number one vehicle for building wealth in America today and will probably be so throughout our lifetime and our children’s lifetime.

There are many reasons why this is so, but the two biggest reasons are one the reality of life; “You have to have a place to live!” and two, “The leverage” that real estate allows.

Lets explore each:

The reality of life seems to escape some people in a slow market, but here it is restated so it is easy to understand:

Everyone needs a place to live.

We are pack animals and we like to live near one another (and the requirements of water, sewer, electricity, etc. make this unavoidable).

There are more of us than ever before, and the numbers are growing.

We come in varying degrees of economic strength ( so we buy real estate in many differing price ranges and types of configuration).

Reason number two the Leverage, restated in everyday terms:

Real Estate is the only investment I know of where you can get in the game for as little as five to 10 percent of purchase price (in rare occasions a little less, and sometimes it might take a little more, but 5 to 10 is doable all day long).

The stock market offers you a margin account where you could invest for 50% down, try buying rare coins for 10% of the sellers asking price! Real estate allows an investor to obtain ownership for as low as 1/20 th of the price of the product, and then to receive the entire 100% appreciation during ownership!

If the above wasn’t enough to make real estate the way to go (and it is), while you’re owning it you can have others (tenants) pay the debt service (mortgage payment), and receive varying tax benefits from the government.

There are an unlimited number of ways to “Play” in the real estate market, but they all should be preceded by a good basic education of what the opportunity is about. I think that basic foundation can be obtained best by taking a solid real estate licensing course (the State of Florida’s real estate license courses are robust!).

You can now avail yourself of a solid understanding of the basics of real estate online, and you can do so for under $300, a bargain in my mind!

If you are thinking about housetraining an older Pug then it is important to understand that it involves as much of a commitment from your family as it does the Pug. While you may assume that since the Pug is already grown and may have very well been potty trained in another home, this is not the case. The Pug will have to adjust to your home and needs time to learn your home’s elimination schedule.

Let’s be realistic here. Your Pug needs some time to adjust to the new environment of your home. He also needs to know that you do not appreciate him peeing on the floor - especially if his prior owner did not seem to care.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because he’s an adult Pug that he’ll just “know” what to do. Start with him as if he were a puppy and gradually teach him the routine of your home’s pet potty schedule.

A good place to start is by crate training or restricting the Pug to going in the bathroom only. Then you can make up a schedule for potty time. Once a Pug is grown it is very picky about where it uses the potty. Typically, they prefer not to use it where they eat, sleep or play.

Take your Pug outside in your yard and choose a spot for your Pug to go potty. The key is to bring the Pug back to that same exact spot on each visit outdoors so that he knows that is where he needs to go. Monitoring your Pug’s elimination patterns can help you devise the right schedule for potty breaks as well.

Keeping your Pug on a schedule is important so be sure to feed your Pug at the same times each day. He may have never had this type of organization in his life before so it is crucial to remain patient while he adjusts. The old phrase, “you can’t teach a Pug new tricks” is a common misconception. In fact, you can teach a Pug anything if you just practice a little consistency.

Your Pug may have lived in an abusive home in the past so be careful about the way you treat your Pug when he behaves out of turn. Show your Pug that you care and exercise a little patience. You need to let the Pug know that he can be comfortable around you so that he is not afraid to learn the new rules.

Be prepared to clean up a lot of accidents at first. Training an adult Pug is no easier than training a puppy. Both Pugs require a lot of adjustment before they can really get a grasp on how things are supposed to work. Being consistent and training with love will boost the Pug’s confidence so that good behavior becomes habit.

An older male Pug may be accustomed to marking his territory by urinating on it. This is an instinctive behavior for male Pugs - you aren’t going to break him of it without breaking his spirit or having him neutered.

There has been a huge movement in the last few years for Americans to buy American made items. It is partially because when you purchase goods made in a specific country - it’s that country’s economy that benefits from the purchase. In these days of economic hardships in the United States, it only makes sense for Americans to buy American to help bolster our own economy. Soy candles are a terrific way to buy American.

Soy candles start with a plant - the soybean plant. Soybeans are grown by American farmers. After planting the seeds in the spring and carefully nurturing the crop during the summer, the soybean is ready for harvesting by the farmer each fall. The beans are then transported to facilities which crush the bean, separating the meal from the oil. The soy meal (or meat) is used by many manufacturers in the production of both human and animal food. The soy oil is sent through a partial hydrogenation process that turns the soy oil into soy wax. The was is extremely soft.

Pure soy wax is extremely soft so it will not produce quality freestanding candles such as pillar candles or taper candles. In order to produce such candles, soy wax must be blended with an additive that will produce a firmer candle. The additive is almost always some other wax. Paraffin wax is very commonly blended with soy wax because it is relatively inexpensive. Vegetable waxes such as castor, palm, rice, jojoba and candelilla, can also be blended with soy producing an all natural candle made from renewable resources.

All natural soy candles with no fragrance or dye are non-toxic so are deemed to be safe for both humans and pets. The fragrance and dye may also be all natural and non-toxic. The soy candle will burn at a cooler temperature thus allowing it to burn approximately 20% to 30% longer than a comparable paraffin wax candle. Another health benefit of soy revolves around the soot produced by the burning candle. Soy candles will produce soot, but it typically is white in color and quite often is not noticeable by the naked eye. Black soot, so commonly produced by paraffin wax candles, can also be produced by soy candles. However, it is usually minuscule amounts and due to some additive to the soy candle such as the fragrance, dye or paraffin wax.

Scented soy candles hold a larger amount of fragrance than paraffin wax candles and can release the scent very easily. In fact, most of the time, a scented soy candle can fill the entire room with fragrance without being lit! Scented soy candles will carry the scent all the way through the candle and release it from the beginning to the end of the candle.

Paraffin wax candles are a petroleum based product - meaning they are made from oil. This increases the American dependence on foreign oil supplies and further erodes the American economy. The all natural soy wax candles do not depend on foreign oil or foreign economies because they originate from the soybean plant, grown by American farmers. Soy candles are not just a healthier alternative for our bodies but also a healthy alternative to the economy of the United States.

Although it is more destructive than it is worth, bear bile farming is still a common practice in some places. It is a practice that must be stopped. It causes extreme pain to the bears. During the process, it can be observed that bears gnash their teeth, bite their cages, moan, and even chew their own paws because of the pain.

Bile Extraction - Bile extraction is done in the crudest manner, and without any form of sanitation. The persons conducting it are unskilled and the process is not up to modern veterinary standards. Most of the bears die during or soon after bile extraction. If they live, they suffer from liver cancer, as a result of chronic inflammation and infection of the gall bladder and liver. Generally, farmed bears live only up to 4 years.

Reason Behind Bear Bile Farming - Bile is a digestive liquid produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. Bile gathered from bears has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for at least three thousand years for a variety of purposes. It is used in Chinese physiotherapy, to cure inflammations and to dissolve gall stones and kidney stones. Also, it is thought to help detoxify the liver and improve eyesight. And according to research, bears are the only mammals that produce the bile salt ursodeoxycholic acid, which is effective in treating some liver diseases.

Before, bear bile was gathered by killing wild bears and removing their gallbladders. In recent decades, when wild bears became increasingly rare, bile became prohibitively costly for most Chinese. But then, during the year 1980, the Chinese bear bile farming industry adapted a technique first developed in North Korea. This involved extracting bile from captive bears without having to kill them.

Bear Abuse - The bears are housed in cages hardly large enough to hold the animal itself. To get the bile, an incision is made in each bear’s abdomen and a catheter (which is basically a plastic or rubber tube) is then inserted into the gallbladder. The bile is drained through the catheter and then gathered for sale.

What does the process involve? To gather the bile from the gallbladder, a connection from the gallbladder (located deep inside the body) to the surface has to be established. The connection, which is medically called fistula, is made in any of the three ways: insertion of a metal tube, insertion of a plastic tube, or creation of a tissue bridge between the gallbladder and skin. The connection is conducted by untrained and unskilled individuals who do not observe modern veterinary standards.

To gather the bile, some bears wear a “metal jacket”. It is worn around their bodies and it has a collection container attached to it. There are bears forced to lie on the floor of their small cages so the bile will drip downward. Keep in mind that their crush cages are extremely small. The floor is made up of iron bars so the bears cannot stand or lie down on firm ground. This results in neck and back injury. Since a bear’s body will try to exclude the inserted metal or plastic tube or close the tissue bridge, scarring and damage is done to both the inside and outside of the bear. Sometimes, to prevent the closing of the incision, hot pieces of metal are inserted without any form of sedation or anesthesia. Bile is collected twice a day, and this goes on for the rest of their lives.

Why Its Unnecessary - There is no need to make poor bears undergo such abuse. The use of bear bile is obsolete. There are at least 75 herbal medicines that can be used as an alternative to bear bile. Of which, 54 are proven to work. These alternatives are a lot cheaper and more convenient.

Today, we can already manufacture synthesized bear bile that contains UrsoDeoxyCholic Acid (the active constituent in bear bile). All these alternatives are just as effective without the deaths of innocent bears. Let us put a stop to bear bile farming. It causes unnecessary torture to poor bears.