With the housing market in a slump and apartment rates increasing, it’s easy to be hesitant about which to choose: Rent or Buy. More and more apartment residents are thinking of ‘taking the plunge’ so to speak. In fact, very close friends of mine even went as far as speaking with a realtor and looking at houses in their area. They were able to find some that would allow them to pay the same monthly rent as the two bedroom apartment they are currently renting. So why didn’t they decide to jump?
Simple, they weren’t ready for the commitment. The upfront financial burden that comes with purchasing a home was more than they thought and the constant upkeep and maintenance of being a homeowner was a scary prospect. They also weren’t sure where they would be in five years, which would make a permanent residence here pointless.
1. The Upfront Financial Burden
It’s no secret that purchasing a home is a costly decision. Not only are you signing a loan amount for the selling price of the house, but you are also faced with closing costs which consist of lawyer fees, loan officer fees, application processing fees, taxes, etc. That initial cost can be between five to seven percent of the selling price!! If you don’t have that money saved up, be weary of lenders lending out ridiculous amounts of money you may not be able to afford. Or really great ‘no money down’ deals that have hidden clauses in the fine print! This is a main reason why the housing market has plummeted.
2. Upkeep & Maintenance of Homeownership
The comfort of living in an apartment-calling a landlord or management company to fix whatever is wrong with your place-is long gone when you sign on that dotted line of homeownership! Once you become a home owner you are responsible for locating-paying for maintenance workers in addition to your monthly mortgage payment. So if you are uncomfortable with the idea of having to pay additional money to fix any problems, then you may want to stay somewhere where help is just a phone call away and there are no extra fees to have it done!
3. Location in 5 years??
Typically, renting over homeownership has an advantage during the first five years a person purchases a home. Because a good portion of monthly payments do consist primarily of interest on a mortgage, whereas renters just pay to have shelter over their head. If you don’t know where you will be living in five years (or sooner than that), then you may not want to purchase a home. After five years of owning a home is when it becomes beneficial because you are paying down your investment.
So what does this mean? For current renters, it means you should really think about your options. Yes, the housing market may be in a slump and this is the best time to purchase a home; however, you need to make sure you are ready to take on this step. Weigh all the factors and look before you leap!
You could win $10,000 in ForRent.com’s Ready2Move video contest. Are you at that point where you realize, ‘Yeah….I’m ready to move!’? If so, then tell us your story. It could be a bad roommate, noisy neighbor, paranormal activity or perhaps you’re still living with your parents! Whatever the case may be, tell ForRent.com why you are Ready2Move. Get out your video camera and start filming your Ready2Move situation! The deadline for video submissions is May 27th, 2009.
Web site visitors can stay connected to the contest through the new ForRent.com Facebook application. Facebook users can access the “Ready2Move?” video contest to upload their own video entry, view other entries and vote for their favorites without registering for an account on the contest site. It’s also easy for users to share the contest and specific videos with their Facebook friends.
Or, you could win $1,500 just for being in the voting sweepstakes! A voter will be selected at random to win. So visit the website and vote for your favorite video. It could make you a winner!
Here are our most recently uploaded videos to our video syndication network which consist of a variety of sites such as: YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo, Dailymotion and many others!
As a product of For Rent Media Solutions™, a division of Dominion Enterprises, ForRent.com offers more than 50,000 apartment community listings nationwide. With so many advertising clients and apartment renters across the nation, we wanted to provide a detailed look into our headquarters and highlight what we do here! Without giving away too much, during the tour we dive into our sales department, customer service, Community Theater® team and, of course, marketing department. It is our hope that this video will provide a more personalized view of our company as well as the entertaining bunch that work here!
So take a look….
Thanks again for taking the tour! Anytime you’re in downtown Norfolk, don’t forget to stop by and visit your friendly apartment enthusiast!
We conclude our holiday blog campaign with today’s post. For the past 12 days we have posted 12 blogs with 12 tips. We hope everyone has enjoyed the 144 total tips regarding holiday decorating, entertaining, gift purchases, recipes and more!
So on this very special holiday, we would like to wish you and yours the very happiest of Holidays!
With the holidays so near, I know everyone is searching for the perfect holiday treat to make! ForRent.com wants to provide you with our holiday recipe tips. The first six are regarding essential holiday pantry items and the remaining six are holiday treat recipes!
6 Essential Holiday Pantry Items:
Chocolate Morsels
Pam Cooking Spray
Vanilla Extract
Holiday Candy
Sprinkles/Food Coloring
Cookie Cutters
During our annual Marketing Department treat exchange, here were six of our favorite treats that were brought. You’ll see that some of them require one of the essential holiday pantry items mentioned previously!
Preheat oven to 350-400 degrees. Line a 9 X 11 jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and spray with Pam. Place saltines, edge to edge, over the bottom of the pan. Melt butter, add sugar and bring to a boil. Boil about 3 minutes to dissolve sugar. Spoon (not pour) over the saltines and then settle the saltines and bake for about 5 minutes. The saltines will look like they are floating. Turn off the oven and remove saltines. Sprinkle chocolate chips over crackers and return to oven until they are melted then add almonds if desired. Cool a bit then cut (but do not try to separate- too runny still) and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Refrigerate until hard then break into pieces, removing foil from the back of the crackers.
Peppermint-Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients:
1 (16.5 ounce) tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/4 cup all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Directions:
Decorating suggestion: crushed candy canes or peppermint candies; white, red and green sprinkles; or red and green decorating sugar
Special equipment: a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, and a ½ ounce cookie scoop
Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, knead together the cookie dough and 1/4 cup flour until smooth. Lightly flour a work surface. Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter, cut out circles from the dough. Knead together any scraps of dough and roll out again. Continue to cut out pastry circles until there are 24 pieces in total. Place the dough circles on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are slightly golden around the edges, about 10 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Reserve 1 parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Combine 1 cup of chocolate chips and the cream in a small bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the peppermint extract and refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour. Using a 1/2-ounce cookie scoop or a tablespoon measure, place the chocolate mixture in the center of the flat side of 12 of the cookies. Place the remaining cookies on top and gently squeeze to distribute the filling evenly. Place on a baking sheet and freeze until the filling has set, about 25 minutes.
Combine the remaining chocolate chips and the vegetable oil in a small bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Dip the top of each cookie in the melted chocolate and return to the baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with crushed candy canes or peppermint candies. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight plastic container.
Christmas Cupcakes
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Cake Mix Funfetti
Duncan Hines Classic Vanilla Frosting
Eggs
Vegetable Oil
Baking Cups Directions:
Follow directions on the box for cooking cup cakes. After cup cakes have cooled, put vanilla frosting on the cup cakes. For extra decoration, you can use holiday colored sprinkles!
Peppermint Bark Ingredients:
12 oz bag of White Chocolate Morsels
12 oz bag of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
8 regular sized Candy Canes
Directions:
Lightly grease a large cookie sheet. Break up candy canes into one inch pieces and put into a sturdy plastic bag. Crush candy canes inside the bag until they are in very small pieces. Next, put the semi-sweet chocolate morsels into a bowl and put in the microwave for 1 minute; stir in 15 second increments until it is completely melted. Pour melted chocolate on the cookie sheet and spread to make a thing layer. Put the white chocolate morsels in a bowl and repeat microwave cycle (while white chocolate is in the microwave, put baking sheet of semi-sweet chocolate in refrigerator for cooling). Once melted, stir in ½ of the candy cane pieces and spread on top of semi-sweet chocolate layer. Top with the remaining pieces of candy cane; be sure to lightly press into the chocolate layer to secure. Cool in refrigerator until hard and then break into pieces!
PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE KISS COOKIES
Ingredients: 1 c. butter
2/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. granular sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
16 oz. pkg. chocolate kiss candyDirections:
Combine butter, peanut butter and sugars; blend until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; blend. Mix flour, salt and soda, add to cream mixture; stir well. Roll dough into quarter size balls. Roll ball in bowl of sugar. Bake dough at 350 degrees for 8 minutes, take out, place chocolate kiss in center of each cookie. Bake an additional 2 minutes.
M&M Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
Bag of Holiday Colored M&Ms (could be the regular kind or the mint flavored!)
Directions: Cut the sugar cookie dough into slices for the appropriate sized cookies (you could also roll into whatever size you choose). Put on greased baking sheet and lightly press to flatten the dough. Place M&Ms on top of the cookies and bake accordingly. Wait for the cookies to cool before taking them off the baking sheet.
With the housing market in a slump and apartment rates increasing, it’s easy to be hesitant about which to choose: Rent or Buy. More and more apartment residents are thinking of ‘taking the plunge’ so to speak. In fact, very close friends of mine even went as far as speaking with a realtor and looking at houses in their area. They were able to find some that would allow them to pay the same monthly rent as the two bedroom apartment they are currently renting. So why didn’t they decide to jump?
Here are our most recently uploaded videos to our video syndication network which consist of a variety of sites such as: 
