Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

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Tax Credits for the Homebuyer

Jan 20

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, news, websites | No Comments

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Coldwell Banker. All opinions are 100% mine.

Wow! I wish they’d had these tax credits available when I purchased my home. It’s a great time to be a home buyer– with the housing market in a slump, property prices are very low, and people and banks are eager to sell.

Coldwell Banker, that outstanding real estate company, has some information on the 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits available to first-time and new home buyers. In a nutshell, here are the details:

  • If you are a first-time home buyer, or have not owned in the last three years, are eligible for an tax credit of up to $8,000.
  • If you own a home and have lived in the home as your principle residence for five out of the eight years you have owned your home, you can receive up to $6,500 in tax credit when purchasing a home.
  • There income limits and deadlines, so if you qualify, do not delay.

This video is good and has more information about the tax credits.

This is a great incentive to get the home market moving again. I love the Coldwell Banker website, too– I routine search for properties to keep tabs on property values in the country. You can search the website for home and property listings, too.

Be sure to definitely check this out to see if you qualify!

Visit my sponsor: 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits

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Find Your Lease Purchase Home on the Net

Jan 19

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Internet, technology, websites | No Comments

It’s so easy nowadays to find a home, thanks to the Net. Wow! I loved poring over homes for sale… dream dream! LeasePurchaseSearch.com has made it all very easy, too. It’s a website dedicated to helping prospective homeowners find the perfect home under a lease purchase contract (rent to buy). Thanks to the unstable housing market, property values have plummeted, which makes it a perfect time to get a home. Not everyone has all the money upfront for such a large purchase, and not everyone can get a big bank loan, either. A lease purchase option is a terrific way to work toward owning your own home.

The website makes searching very easy: you can search by city, state, zip code, home price, bedrooms, and bathrooms. The search results are clear cut– many have photos– and they offer details on the property, with contact information. Nice! No longer do you have to call dozens of realtors or scour the newspapers for availability of, for example, Lease Purchase Philadelphia opportunities. It’s a great way to search for a beautiful home.

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Search Online for Studio Apartments

Jan 18

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in search engines, websites | No Comments

Boy! I wish they had this website when I was younger and looking for studio apartments. Then again, I wish they’d had the INTERNET when I was younger!

Well, the Internet has changed everything, hasn’t it? You can find just about anything, including your next “pad”! There’s a nifty website where you can search specifically for studio apartments anywhere in the United States. Let’s say you live in Anchorage, and want to research Nashville Studio Apartments– just punch in the location (city and state name, or zip code) and any other data you want to include (price range, bathrooms, etc), and MyStudioApartments will search for apartments and generate the results very quickly. Search results include a photo if there is one, information about the apartment, a small paragraph about the location, leasing options where applicable, and information on the lendor or realtor involved. It’s very organized and everything is right at your fingertips. It’s great!

MyStudioApartments.com also has some articles for the studio renter, such as decorating tips, information on localities, and more. It’s nice and simple to use. If you or someone you know is needing to find a studio apartment, definitely take a peek. The website is free to use, and you can register for free, for added benefits.

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Finding Literature Online

Dec 22

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in Google, PDF reader, blogs, educational programs, free stuff, websites | 1 Comment

It’s winter for us in the United States– that means more inside activities. For us, it means more reading. I have a stack of books that I’ve ordered from the library, but there are several books that I desire to read that my library does not carry (I like history books, especially ancient civilizations and British history; these seems to be in short order at my library, which carries a ton of fiction stuff).

I considered getting one of those e-reader gadgets (like the Kindle or Sony e-Reader) but the price tag gave me sticker shock. But I found that one doesn’t really need one of those gadgets to read books, not really. There are a ton of e-books to be found online. And if you have a netbook, it’s as easy as starting up a browser or opening a pdf file. Here’s a quick list of e-books to be found online. All of these sites have free books and other forms of literature to read.

Google Books
By far, Google has the largest selection of books and magazines, new and old. I like their library because they have many books that have been out of print for decades , which are very useful to me for my research.

Project Gutenberg is a huge site, with thousands of books you can download or read online.

The Christian Classic Ethereal Library has many old books and documents online for reading.

American Rhetoric has a large database of speeches, documents, videos, and more.

The Classic Bookshelf The website is a little hokey (old), but they have a searchable database and some great classics online.

The Open Library is good.

The Online Books Page is run by the University of Pennsylvania and has a searchable database.

Diploma Guide.com has a listing of free books and textbooks you can read online, as well as a listing of universities in the U.S. (public and private) where you can search for more.

The Internet Archive Text Archive
This website has a large selection of older books.

The Cornell University Library has some very old journals from early America. And The Making of America has a selection of older books, too.

Children’s Storybooks Online has children’s books.

And this list just scratches the surface! If you still haven’t found a particular book, try searching for “read books online” and/or the title or genre of the literature you want.

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Do Your Homework When Looking for Web Hosting

Nov 18

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in blogs, web hosting, websites | 2 Comments

I’ve had my share of web hosts, some good and some not so good. Before leaping into the world of self-hosting your own websites, you really need to evaluate your needs (which might grow over time). Most bloggers choose shared hosting, which is your website hosted on a server along with a number of other people’s websites on the same server. Then there is dedicated hosting, which is your own dedicated server, or partition on a server; or a middle-ground kind of hosting called vps hosting. Dedicated hosting is usually much, much more stable and reliable, but it is also extremely expensive. VPS hosting is more affordable and offers many of the perks that dedicated hosting offers; shared hosting is the least expensive and the least reliable.

It’s this kind of stuff that you need to know before taking the leap. I didn’t know a lot of stuff, so I wandered around, wasting a lot of time, energy, and effort. I did learn a lot in the process, but I would have rather avoided some of the snarls of ignorance.

Here’s a good site to get your feet wet with web hosting: WebHostingGeeks.com. This site has been up and running since 2004, providing the Internet with excellent and readable articles, tips, and reviews of web hosting terms, concepts, and providers. The Web Hosting 101 series is excellent; I go there sometimes to keep up with latest developments and news, and read reviews of some newer hosting companies. WebHostingGeeks also has tips on SEO and SEM strategies, informative articles on domain names (and ICANN has recently internationalized the Internet, so the structure of domain names will soon be changing), and more. It’s a good site to check from time to time, looking at news and reviews. I like the consumer reviews of the various web hosts, too. WebHostingGeeks breaks them down into “Best Dedicated Hosting,” “Best UNIX Hosting,” Best Email Hosting,” “Best Budget Hosting,” and more.

Before taking the plunge to have your websites hosted, be sure to learn a little of the trade. You will avoid a lot of headaches, and you’ll also get the most for your money. Be sure to take a look at WebHostingGeeks.com. It’s totally free to peruse, and you will learn a lot!

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