The Benefits of Obtaining the Services of a Flat Fee Realtor

Each year, a large number of Los Angeles residents make the decision to sell their home. If you are interested in becoming one of those individuals, you have a number of selling options. Those options include privately selling your home or using the services of a professional realtor.

As with any service, there are advantages and disadvantages of seeking professional assistance to sell your home. Many homeowners mistakenly believe that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, but in reality they often do not. The main disadvantage to using a professional to sell your home is amount of money they will charge. A large number of realtors charge a high fee for their services, but not all do.

If you are interested in finding a realtor that does not charge a high amount of money for their services, there are a number of ways that you can go about doing so. The first way involves familiarizing yourself with the most popular ways that real estate agents obtain their fees from their clients. The two most popular payment methods include a flat fee or a commission based fee.

One of the most preferred choices of payment by Los Angeles homeowners is a flat fee realtor listing. Los Angeles residents prefer this method for a number of different reasons. Perhaps, the greatest benefit of obtaining the services of a flat fee realtor is that their fee will be decided ahead of time. Individuals specializing in flat fee realtor listings often charge the same amount of money for their services, no matter what your home sells for.

If you have a home that is expect to sell for a large amount of money, you may want to consider using the services of an individual who has experience with a flat fee realtor listing. Los Angeles residents with expensive homes are often able to retain a profit from the sale of their home by using a flat fee realtor.

As the current owner of your home, you have the ability to choose which realtor you?d like to select. In addition to selecting a realtor based on their fees, you are encouraged to examine the services offered by each realtor. This should enable you to determine if the fees being charged are actually worth paying. There are many realtors who charge a high amount of fees, but offer a limited number of services. With these realtors you are not receiving a good value for you money.

By taking the time to contact a number of realtors, you could easily find an individual who is experienced with offering a flat fee realtor listing. Los Angeles residents typically want to see a profit from the sale of their home. With a low-cost flat fee realtor, you may be able to see a significant profit.

Brad Horn is a writer for 1 percent realtor where you can find a great resource for information regarding Los Angeles Flat Fee Realtor

Recipe South African Buttermilk Rusks

Rusks in South Africa are part of the cultural identity ? one of the things that exiles in a foreign land long for. Children are brought up on Rooibos tea (a herbal bush tea) and rusks. These aren?t the pallid soggy affairs that pass for rusks in the UK - Farleys rusks given to teething infants and guaranteed to coat your entire house with a paste of gooey gloop. South African rusks are of a texture somewhere between bread and cake, with extra bits of raisin or nuts, baked hard so that they must be dunked in tea or else gnawed slowly. They last a long time in an airtight tin, so are baked in big batches but even so they don?t last long in our house.

As an Englishwoman married to a South African living in London, I came across rusks on our visits to his family and was instantly converted. ?Ouma?s Rusks? are the famous ones that come in several varieties and we always came home with a few packs in our suitcase. On a longer visit in a cottage in Philadelphia, near Cape Town, I found a recipe to bake my own rusks, tried it and have been baking them every two weeks pretty much ever since.

When our son was a toddler waking at 5.30 every morning, the only thing that made the morning bearable was the thought of tea and rusks. Our son started off on them early and our sofa became a nest of cushions and crumbs. The first thing he ever helped bake was rusks and I always had my patience tried, as the mix became the scene of excavations with diggers or a castle with a moat. The girls also joined in when they were old enough, so for a time I had three children all wrestling to get their hands in the dough. Now the youngest is adept at making balls the right size and I have a band of useful helpers. So rusks have become part of our family culture too, my children may have missed out on the rooibos tea tradition ? (I love it, they hate it) but at least they were brought up properly as regards rusks!

Several friends in London were smitten, asked for the recipe and started baking and it has since been dispersed as far afield as Pakistan and the USA.

The recipe:

South African Buttermilk Rusks

1.240kg / 2lb12oz flour (I use 1kg wholemeal and the rest white)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons of salt
250g / 9oz butter
? cup raisins (optional)
2 eggs
1 ? cups brown sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup oil

(1 cup=250ml)
Preheat the oven to 190C/380F
Grease three loaf tins of base measurement 20cmx10cm / 8?x 4? approx or any combination of deep baking dish that adds up to about the same.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour. Add the raisins if you are using them. You can experiment with various nuts and seeds as well, though the rusks are equally good plain.

In another bowl mix together the buttermilk, sugar, eggs and oil and beat until well combined. Stir liquid into dry ingredients and mix then knead to a firm dough.

Form the dough into balls about the size of a ping-pong ball and pack them tightly in one layer into the loaf tins. I usually get six rows of three into each of my tins. Bake for 45 minutes.

Turn out onto a rack and leave to cool for 30 minutes before breaking up into individual rusks along the joins of the balls. Dry in a low oven 100C/200F for 4-5 hours until the centre is completely dry. These can be kept for ages in an airtight container.

Warning: crumbs guaranteed on the sofa, in the bed, over the carpet and the car seats!

Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock

About the Author:

Kit Heathcock - worked and travelled in Italy for many years, is passionate about food and loves being a fulltime mother. Co-creator of http://www.aflowergallery.com home of original flower pictures and http://www.food-and-family.com

Tips to Help Deal With the Physical Pain of Breast Feeding Weaning

Weaning occurs whenever you offer something to your baby other than your breast at times when you would normally breastfeed. Just as breastfeeding is a natural process, so should weaning from the breast occur naturally. A natural weaning will cause the least amount of physical pain for the mom.

Weaning should always be baby-led, except in medically required weaning. No matter how weaning happens, it is better for you physically if you wean slowly. Stopping abruptly will cause your breasts to become engorged, and you may develop a breast infection.

If you must wean quickly for medical reasons, it is important to manually express milk for your comfort until you begin to produce less naturally. Going all night without nursing can leave your breast feeling really heavy and full and even produce a backache. One way to relieve your breasts in this situation is to pump before going to bed. This will help your breasts to be less full throughout the night and helpfully relieve your physical discomfort when you awake. Only pump or manually express a small amount. If you pump too much, you will only make your body think that there is an increased demand and it will produce more milk!

Some women have found it helpful when weaning to wear cold green cabbage leaves in their bra during the day to ease the physical symptoms of weaning. If you want to try this, keep the leaves in place just until they begin to wilt, and then replace them with fresh, cold ones. Warning: cabbage leaves will stop milk production, so be careful to do this in cases of engorgement during weaning only. This is not the method to use if you only want to temporarily decrease milk production. Drinking Sage tea is also recommended. Drink two to three infusions a day of 1 tablespoon/1 cup hot water and you should see some results soon. Another comfort aid is to use an anti-inflammatory medication to reduce any swelling.

The key to comfort while weaning from the breast is to do it gradually. A good rule of thumb is to go from expressing 6 times a day to 5 or 4, then to 3 or 2, and then to once every 2 or 3 days, then to once a week until your child is completely weaned.

Avoid touching or stimulating your breasts and avoid hot showers. Binding your breasts may also help. You may try wearing pre-pregnancy sports bras. Wear the bra for a few days and the discomfort should decrease.

Icing your breasts with covered cold packs is not fun, but it does relieve any swelling and pain. Just be sure to not touch cold packs to bare skin. If you and your health care professional decide for you to use BCP (birth control pills) for family planning, they work wonders on reducing your milk production, too.

You can also use cold washcloths in place of the ice packs. To relieve pain and discomfort you can also take Tylenol as directed on the label.

Visit http://www.bottleweaning.com for more information on Bottle Weaning

The Dirty Little Secret About The Do Not Call List

The Do Not Call List has changed the way real estate agents can and will do business forever. After all, 76% of US adults have added their name to the list. The dirty little secret...it does not matter! The Do Not Call List does not mean that you can't still get solid qualified leads. There are a lot of real estate trainers out there claiming to have the answers, a sure fire way to beat The List and the next be all, end all real estate marketing program to have people beating down your doors to do business with you. The ads for these programs usually include a lot of hype and testimonials by agents who have increased their business by 200% and then at the end hit you with the big price tag. But where are the real numbers and hard facts behind the hype? Who really knows if those programs are going to lead you to the path of success? I certainly don't. But here is what I do know.The biggest obstacle to a real estate agents next commission, and their long term success, is finding qualified leads. You know that if you could just get the leads, you could close the deals. But most agents are at a loss once they exhaust their list of family, friends and sphere of influence. And with 3 out of 4 prospects off limits, cold calling becomes more like walking a mine field than trying to drum up business. That is why the turn-over rate for new agents in real estate is over 50% per year So how do the successful 50% find qualified leads? Well for one thing they do not passively look for leads, they actively generate them. Many successful agents have turned to toll free number call capture technology to generate leads without the risk of an $11,000 fine. When you look at the numbers, it is easy to see why it works.83% Of Americans Want Recorded InformationAccording to a Gallup Poll, 83% of Americans would rather call for recorded information before speaking to a salesperson. Give the public what they want. A toll free number call capture system allows real estate agents to offer free recorded information about properties, free reports for buyers and sellers or any other information they would like to make available to their prospects. Once the potential clients call in, their name, address and phone number are captured for the agent to follow up on. Since the prospect called into the toll free number to request information, the agent is free to call them back for up to 3 months (unless the consumer requests not to be called.)32.7% Will Buy or List Within 30-60 DaysA survey of over 25,000 prospects who called for recorded information showed 32.7% of them bought or listed a property within 30-60 days after calling. An additional 42.1% acted within twelve months. I have not heard of any other form of marketing that can tout those kinds of numbers of quality leads. A toll free number call capture system generates quality, actionable leads. And the best part? They called you. Agents who have these kinds of quality leads, calling them 24/7, could care less about the Do Not Call List.74% Will Do Business With YOU.According to NAR, 74% of the people that complete a real estate transaction do so with the FIRST agent they talked to. That being the case, it is in an agent's best interest to make sure they are the first ones to reach the prospect. A call capture system makes this easy to do. Once the potential client calls in, all the information is available to the agent; name, address, phone number, and in the better systems, even what information extension they called in on. With that kind of information at their fingertips, an agent is empowered with everything that they need to get back to the consumer in a timely fashion and with confidence.Everyone in the real estate industry knows that the Do Not Call List has completely changed the way agents do business. But some have found that by using call capture technology, they can generate even more quality leads than they ever did with cold calling. The technology gives consumers what they want by allowing them to call in for free recorded information and generates quality, actionable leads that agents can follow up on quickly and with confidence. And in spite of the Do Not Call List, agents are finding it actually easier to do business using call capture. If you want to know how that is possible, just look at the numbers and then check out call capture technology for yourself.

Brandi Cummings is a leading telecommunications consultant specializing in 800 number call capture technology for real estate professionals. Learn more secrets and tips on how to make a call capture system work for you at www.realtyone800.com.

Things For Families To Do In Hawaii

Pearl Wedding Jewelry: How to Choose Pearl Wedding Jewelry for Your Gown

Nothing completes a look and adds glamour like jewelry. Pearl jewelry is considered essential for both bride and bridesmaids because they symbolize love, purity and are believed to bring happiness and prosperity to marriage. It is something you will continue to love and enjoy for years to come.

Pearl jewelry is versatile. You can always find one suiting the style of your dress by following the neckline of your gown with the shape of your necklace. A correctly chosen pearl jewelry should harmonize the entire wedding attire and enhance your natural beauty. This article will show you how to choose the right pearl necklace for your wedding gown.

1. Strapless Dress


Strapless neckline includes Off the Shoulder, Sweetheart, and Portrait. It highlights shoulder and neck region. The right pearl wedding jewelry helps compliment the top line of the dress and draws attention to you. Many necklace styles will work with the strapless dress:

• Pearl choker & pearl princess
  
  Pearl choker is 14-16 inches long and rests at the collarbone. Pearl princess is 17-19 inches long. Both pearl choker and pearl princess bring a symmetrical and parallel line to match the dress neckline.


• Multi-strand necklaces are also a great choice for the strapless wedding gown as long as you keep the necklace length at least one inch above the dress' neckline so as to look uncrowded.


• Y-drop necklace or pendant necklace works especially well for sweetheart neckline as it follows the top line of the wedding gown and brings focus to the bride. It also works for other strapless dresses.

2. Jewel

Jewel style dress has a high round neckline at the base of the neck. For this type of gown, choose short necklaces that fit close to your throat. Top Choices are:

• Pearl collar. Pearl collar is 12 to 13 inches long, usually made up of three or more strands. It lies snugly on the middle of the neck, luxurious and eye-catching.


• Pearl choker

3. Halter

A dress with a halter top neckline features straps that wrap around the back of the neck, creating an upside down V. Different halter top dresses call for different jewelry choices.

• If halter top rises close to your throat, go without necklace. Any necklace will crowd the overall look; usefabulous dangly earrings, and glamorous bracelets to touch up instead.


• If the halter is low and wide, consider the following suggestions: pendant necklace, Y-drop necklace or front tied lariat.

4. Bateau

Bateau has wide, high, and relatively straight neckline. It sweeps across collarbone to the edge of the shoulders. This classic dress style calls for a simple necklace worn close to the throat. Both pearl collar and pearl choker will fit this dress style well.

5. One Shoulder Dress or Asymmetric Dress

The one shoulder dress is a bold style. A necklace generally is not a good idea. Because the necklace's symmetric lines may clash with the dress' asymmetric neckline, looking unbalanced and unnatural. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can't wear other beautiful accessories. You can really sparkle with a pair of earrings and a bracelet!

6. Square

The square neckline has a straight horizontal bodice that meets with straps in a 90-degree angle. This neckline calls for a simple, single strand or double strand necklaces to soften the lines. The most popular choices are pearl choker and pearl princess.

7. V-Neck

When wearing a V-neck dress, choose a necklace that imitates the lines of the dress:

• Y-drop necklaces. The Y-drop necklace takes the same angles as the v neck dress line.


• Chokers. The choker gives a clean line and does not distract from the v neck dress style.

8. Scoop

Scoop necked gown is a versatile neckline and the most necklace style will frame out the top of this gown perfectly. Top Choices are pearl choker, pearl princess, and multi-strand pearl necklace.

About the Author

Mindy Pearl is the advisor of pearl-gift-ideas.com providing a wealth of information about pearl and pearl jewelry, as well as tips on how to choose the right pearls, etc. This site will help you and your loved ones derive more ideas and enjoyments from pearl gifts.

More Upper Body Exercises for Computer Users

Working on computers a lot can do our body a lot of damage by remaining seated for so long without extra activity. So get fit with some help for your upper muscle groups and get in shape fast.

Start with roughly five minutes of stretches and warming up. No hand weights are needed yet. Begin by slowly and easily pull leading your left arm grasped with your right hand over to the opposite side of your body. In a series of smooth movements, first pull your arm up towards the ceiling, then take it down to your toes, and then up and back, etc. until you make full range-of-motion actions ? all nice and easy. Change the exercise to work your other arm and side.

Five minutes is plenty for this. Then move on to get your hands weights. Remember, you don?t need to run to the store and buy hand weights. You can use soup cans or a fill a bottle with sand or water (just not candy!)

OK, with your weights in your hands, complete the following exercises. Repeat each one 10 or 12 times for one set, then repeat two sets after that. And adjust these repetitions and sets for your level of fitness and exercise experience, increasing repetitions, sets and weight amounts as you grow in strength.

Push-Ups with Chest and Arms

Drop down and do 10 push-ups, not the tough marine style ones, but easier ones where your knees, your toes and your palms are all on the floor. Your hands should be shoulder-width from each other. Then proceed with old-fashioned push-ups, keeping your back straight, and not ever reaching the floor, coming in contact with it with your nose ? but very close.

Chin-Ups to Work Out Your Back, Shoulders & Arms

Next come chin-ups, thought again, not marine-style, so good news! Start with weights in hand standing up, feet spaced apart just a little. Bring your arms hanging down in front of you so that your weights nearly touch each other. Then it?s chin-up time, pulling the weights to your chin, bending your elbows. Count to three, then pull back so elbows go back to your sides again. Count three. Then complete your repetitions and sets.

More Exercises

For many more exercise and helpful upper body tips, head to Amazon.com and eBay.com for new and used equipment, books, weights and other exercise aids and tools. Don?t neglect your public library, too, for videos, cassettes, books and more.

Download your free report entitled Powerful Weight Loss Strategies and discover how to lose weight naturally and easily. Also, be sure to download your bonus free report and discover how to get six pack abs quickly and easily.