Scotia McLeod - Business Finances Sports and Society

The Closing Costs When Buying or Selling a House

April 20, 2016 Published by: Melody Colby

Buying and selling a house in Western New York always has an additional expense in the form of closing costs. With this, the contract must state which party should shoulder which closing costs. Further inquiry about this matter should be discussed confidentially with a lawyer.

Here’s some basic information on closing costs whether you are a buyer or seller:

Basically, closing costs consist of the payment you make for the services of people who will be involved in the transaction, whether you are a buyer or a seller. These people are significant for a successful deal.

Closing costs for a seller

A seller will typically pay for local inspections and certificates, the title search updates, the updated survey, the transfer tax along with the filing fee for the transfer tax return, the recording fees for any additional legal papers for the purchaser to accept the title and attorney’s fee and disbursements.

The title search update is important, but to lessen cost a seller must possess the abstract of the title from the time of purchase in order to make the searcher’s job faster, thus, keeping the bill low. The cost of an update search is dependent on how extensive the searcher must look into public records.

Closing costs for a buyer

Aside from the house being purchased, a buyer will pay for the lender’s fees, recording fee for the deed, recording fee for the mortgage, mortgage recording tax and the title insurance. A discussion with an attorney regarding the title insurance is important for a buyer to do. If the buyer will borrow money from the bank, a title insurance policy that protects the bank’s lien position against the property must be purchased. Although the buyer has the option which policy to purchase to protect ownership in the property, the attorney must still be sought for counsel and decision be made after he or she reviews the title.

Real Estate

The First-time home buyer’s dilemma

April 15, 2016 Published by: Melody Colby

Affordable segments in the real estate industry include smaller homes in both suburban and urban areas. But sadly they don’t only appeal to first-time buyers but also to deep-pocketed investors. Making it difficult for the newbies to purchase their own home given the years of experience these investors have in the trade.

Ideally, investor buyers have higher incomes than both median and primary-income residence buyers. This makes it tough for the first-time buyer to compete but given that they are owner-occupiers they will have an advantage of 50 basis points which the investor won’t have. With this, investors will pay higher mortgage rate because they do not live in the property as their primary residence.

Even though investors are more attractive to lenders they still pay higher rates. This results to an easy mortgage application and approval process and sometimes they don’t even have to undergo the mortgage process at all. Buyers with the ability to pay cash will have the advantage to get the deal because they can make offers without a financing contingency. Offers without financial contingency will close more rapidly.

With the millenials slowly being out there to purchase a home, rental properties’ demand will continually increase. This trend is not affected by the tight supply and credit environment the industry is operating in. In fact, homeownership is nearing a 48-year low as older household are also recovering from the crisis brought about by foreclosures.

With the investor buyer’s advantage over a typical buyer, the supply of smaller and lower-priced homes is slowly dwindling down. With every investment purchase, the available home for selling decreases. This year will see a similar pattern of buyers against the backdrop of growth if real estate sales. This makes it more difficult to buy a home, from qualifying for a mortgage, finding a home until the successful bidding to get a contract.

Business/Financial

10 honest tips to boost sales this 2016

February 12, 2016 Published by: Melody Colby

With the internet being so popular and frequently used right now by all ages, it is difficult to emerge above the different noises or nuisance content being produced everyday by people. But that won’t stop determined companies and enterprises to produce unique and valuable contents this year.

There are different marketing agencies scattered around the world showing that their service is different from the others. Whatever the objective of any marketing team is, whether that may be for brand awareness, engagement, call to action, the sole purpose as to why they do their campaign is primarily because to increase sales.

We provide you things that all of these marketing agencies have and what they will do to improve the standing of your business.

Improve your website

A boring and stale website will discourage any potential customer to subscribe to your service or product. Know that an average person’s attention span is less than 5 seconds. If they don’t see your site as creative, intriguing or persuasive in a way, they won’t engage with it. Marketing agencies would revamp your website and make it more interactive to the users. They will make it bright, play with colors and place some engaging graphics to sooth the consumer’s eyes. Web developers also would make your website be responsive when the customer checks it out via their phone.

Scale in social media

Marketing agencies would take hold of your social media to effectively engage with your followers and convert potential customers. Having a social media presence is key to your business because most consumers spend a lot of time in different social media platform. That is where their eyes and ears are. If your marketing team or agency is good enough to know how to approach the consumers on different social media platforms – where everything constantly changing and updating.

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is such a big help to your business because it helps your brand or business to be visible in the biggest and widely used search engine by people. Getting your company on the top of that list grants you a higher chance of getting a sale or traffic since people who search on Google tends to be specific on what they are looking for.

Study previous campaigns

Data analysis of previous campaigns is a very big help when you run ads this 2016. It helps you look at a more in-depth view of what works and what doesn’t for your website. You can capitalize on what worked the previous campaign and think of many ways on how you can improve it or at least tweak it. You can learn from what didn’t worked by analyzing on why it showed bad data and it also aids you in learning as to what your existing and potential customer want from your business.

SEO is still useful

Some marketing agencies will argue on whether SEO is still effective or not. Nevertheless, SEO has almost the same benefits as Google AdWords. Ranking high on the search engine that most people use to look or plainly search for something will put your business in an advantageous position. SEO is a lengthy process but it is definitely worth it. A good marketing agency or team would know how to effectively boost your business’ website in Google so that it will gain more website traffic, conversion and sales.

Content Creation

Content creation is not simply just putting out content every 2 hours in your website and other social media accounts connected to it. But the content has to be true, unique and engaging. Unique in the sense that it stands out from every other plain content produced everyday by different people in the internet. True in a way that you are just not making up things to make your product be much more enticing. It has to be true for it to be valued by your consumer. Otherwise, they might think that you just want their money but they have nothing to gain from your product or service. Engaging is making your contents speak to your customers. Make sure what you put in your content is what your customers would like to see.

Adapt to change

If you think that content is just plainly writing of articles and blogs then you have to come out of the rock that you have been living in for the past years. We heard the saying that “content is king” because content creation encompasses writing, pictures, infographics, music, video, podcasts. Adapting to change is one vital skill needed to be learned when it comes to the internet.

Sufficient knowledge in programming

A knowledge in programming would also effectively boost your website conversions. Creating hard coded landing pages for your site is of big help because it is a call to action on the side of your website visitor. In the landing page, you can state there that if they subscribe to your newsletter, they get a free ebook or a discount on their next purchase. It is about again persuading and enticing your consumers.

Long term goals

When setting up for goals to be achieved in your business, it will be healthy for your company to pick the long term ones. Any ad campaign to be successful and see good results need to be lengthy since you are maintaining current customers and converting potential ones. Gaining the trust of potential customers is a long road since you need to prove to them that you bring value to them. It takes time to prove your service and product to be amazing for your customers but once done right, increase of traffic and sales is right around the corner.

Attention is needed

Be attentive. Again, in a world that change is constantly happening, it is vital to look and search for the different trends that people jump in to. Look at what’s popular to your consumer demographic; be on the lookout for the emerging platforms that may be potentially jumped in to. Always be attentive for it will differentiate you from your competition.

Business/Financial

Gaining Local Business With Plano SEO Experts

August 21, 2015 Published by: Melody Colby

Plano SEO for your local business

Strategy and design for increasing your website’s search results is a service provided by one of the top online marketing companies in Plano TX. Total Online Marketing, based in Collin County, just north of Dallas, provides customers with complete online marketing services.

Total Online Marketing uses their experience as local SEO experts to design a strategy specific to your website, business plans, and marketing efforts. Your custom designed plan will boost your search rankings and increase visitors to your website. To complete your local online marketing, you can utilize the social media marketing services and online reputation management that often overwhelms many businesses. Having a professional manage these important aspects of local online marketing is one of the strategies that will provide maximum exposure with limited risk.

If your website is in need of reconditioning, Total Online Marketing has a complete design staff ready to make your Plano web design the best it can be. Your new web design would include all aspects of online marketing, including correct location citations, key search term optimization, simple onsite navigation (so your visitors can find what they are looking for,) and on-page optimization (so search engines can find what they are looking for.) Additionally, as part of the complete Plano SEO experts strategy, we will appropriately find and link information related to your business and site to drive more relevant traffic to your online business.

Summary of Plano SEO experts: Total Online Marketing

For your local online marketing strategy, you will need:

Optimized web site
- Make it easy for visitors and search engines to navigate your site
- Use a mobile friendly design so that your visitors can access your site on their smart phones
Social Media presence
- Utilize Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn to their fullest
Accurate map citations
- Use a consistent address location for all online maps and citations
Good, Quality content
- Provide interesting and valuable articles and content in the form of images, videos and written word.
- How-to and informational articles provide immense value to your visitors.

These steps are best executed with the professional staff at Total Online Marketing. Find them today at www.totalmagic.com/plano-seo/.

Society / Government

The Body Image

July 3, 2015 Published by: Melody Colby

I agree strongly with the statement that many people living on our society are influenced by the media and the fashion industry. Such factors can be blamed for the increased number of people who are suffering from eating disorders. For example, fashion industries typically feature women whose figures vary from eight to ten.

It seems that the fashion industries are presenting an image of what an everyday woman should be. As a result, the average woman is forced to evaluate herself against such an unrealistic ideal. Most of these models have above average height, have naturally supple bodies and between sixteen to thirty years old. The image of these ideal women is mainly created and manipulated by a prevailing male homosexual industry, which seems reluctant to show women as curvaceous individuals.

Celebrities as well fall foul of such dominant media representation of women. Just like the case of Victoria Beckham when she gave birth of her first child. Not long after the birth, she was featured on a catwalk wearing the clothes of one of her favorite designers. Her slim figure after her pregnancy was praised. However, there was a speculation over her emaciated new look and she denied any talk of her eating disorder. She eventually confessed having this eating disorder after the birth of her son in her autobiography.

Most teenagers view people on Television and admire the image of a star. With unbalance hormones as well as self consciousness during the teenage growing period, teens are likely to be influenced by media. For instance, some people particularly women see anorexia as the quick fix to weight loss. It may begin as a way of losing weight rapidly and as the success of the disorder begins to dawn, it becomes a long-term obsession afterwards.

The two most likely groups to be influenced by the media are the teenage girls and middle aged women. Their lives are dictated to an extent by male desire. With magazine and sitcoms such as “Dawson’s Creek,” the young teenage girl is being told that being attractive will lead you to love, even if it involves heartbreak.

On the other hand, the pressure which has been placed on women by their husband, boyfriend and the media undoubtedly leads women to be more insecure about them physically. Women are then compelled to look good and the pressure is placed on them to maintain them.

With all the male pressure, the fashion industry, celebrities, magazines, the adverts put on more anxiety and manipulation by selling gadgets and products. In conclusion, I believe that society affects people and how they perceive themselves. Almost everybody somehow changes in order to suit someone or a specific society in some way or another.

Business/Financial

What You Should Know About Financial Freedom

June 25, 2015 Published by: Melody Colby

Hospital bills aren’t a normal “just pay and you’ll be okay” scenario. Doctor’s fee, medicines, food for the patient, and other health issues are considered very expensive for less fortunate people. You might be wondering why those people who are financially secure live longer than those who are not.

Rich people can finance their lifestyle that is why they live longer than you do. Money can make people alive. If you are financially stable then, do you also have a healthy lifestyle?

A lot of people are living in debt, and because of this, money tore people’s lives apart. If there are several people who are struggling in life, then there are also a lot of people who has financial freedom, however, financial freedom requires knowledge, self-discipline, self-control, and initiative. To be financially stable takes a bit of work. If you do not have the finances to solve your difficulties, you will spend more time in an unending argument, waiting for nothing, writing letters to institutions, paying more, and working harder just to stay alive. The effortless comprehension of how finances work will give you a much greater chance of financial freedom.

Creating wealth must back off from financial worry, have patience, have discipline, gain some knowledge about finances, and put your money to work. Don’t let money rule over you, but rather make it work. If you ever wish to self-rule finances, you must begin to think about financial independence: take responsibility for your own finances; having no financial obligations and not believing in any institutional gibberish. Reject the entire financial tenet you’ve heard.

Getting rid of your debt is the most important and difficult step to achieve financial freedom. Step out onto the trap of getting into debt. Create a simple budget, plan for the future, and regain control of your finances. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for services that serve absolutely no useful purpose except to make other companies rich.

Who owns the tallest buildings today? Who lives with a million dollar cash in bank? Who pays your labor? Corporations. Insurance, credit, and banking companies in particular. Work and you will be paid.

A little bit of sacrifice and a little push of hard work is a requirement to achieve a financially stable life. Some people were born rich and financially stable. It is the so-called “shares dynasty.” Avoid loans for the chance of great financial success in the future. If you have loans, get rid of them before you put your money in other investments. Only after purging yourself of debt, you are now free to invest.

Though we know that money is powerful, do not let yourself be buried by it. Don’t get held by it, but rather, you, yourself should control it. Think of money as a problem, and let yourself be the solution. Take this question into consideration: can a person ever become financially secure by remaining in debt without investing at all? Think about that.

Sports

What sports can do

June 18, 2015 Published by: Melody Colby

Sports were created for a purpose of letting people live not just for fun, but can also be a goal-oriented individual. Sports are for healthy living, in a sense that it helps the mind think fast, strengthen the bones and muscles of the body, and carries out chronic diseases. Misuse of sports may sometimes create disadvantages for a person.

Playing sports helps you stay in shape, teaches you how to organize your time, boosts friendships, and builds relationships with your peers and adults. Through athletics, you gain skills that can best be acquired on a court, track, or field.

Research interest on the effects of physical activity on health dates back to the 1950’s with a breakthrough in the scientific evidence on the health benefits of physical activity. It largely took place during the 1980s and 1990s. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence on the positive effects of sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. The positive, direct effects of engaging in regular physical activity are particularly apparent in the prevention of several chronic diseases, including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis.

Below are the facts about sports:

Friendship

Playing sports enable a person to build friendship with his playmate. Sports bring teens together from different schools, backgrounds, and communities. Many times, the friendships you create on the field remain intact even when you are not playing sports.

Family

Family’s with tight bonds are usually found in sports. The constant support of your parents helps you to feel good about yourself and strengthens your connection to them. As a teen, it is not always easy to find time to spend time with your parents. Sports give you and your parents’ time to appreciate one another.

Coaches

The one who puts you in the game is the one who can make you win your game. Your coach pushes you to become a stronger player. The relationship that you develop with your coach is very important to the success of the team. Positive coaching helps to bring the team together, and gives players the right tools to push themselves academically and physically.

Health

To be a good athlete, you must take care of yourself. This gets you thinking about what to eat and how to treat your body to achieve peak performance levels. Improving at a sport requires memorization, repetition and learning, and honing these skill sets can carry over into other activities, including your job. Playing a sport also boosts self-esteem. Watching hard work rewarded with improved abilities and better results in competitions proves that you can set goals and achieve them.

Sports Nutrition

When engaging in sports for the first time, you may feel hungrier than usual. This is normal, because your body is expending much more energy than it is used to. Here are some nutrition tips to help keep you healthy while you participate in sports.

Eat fat. About 20 to 25 percent of energy comes from fats, so to keep energy levels high. Your body needs you to consume fat.
Make sure to eat before, during, and after your sport. The helps maintain blood glucose levels, which in turn will help enhance your sports performance.
Keep hydrated! When playing a sport, your body loses a lot of fluid, which can cause dehydration. This is dangerous and potentially fatal, so drink plenty of water.
Eat a balanced diet. An athlete’s diet should include plenty of complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fats.
Limit salt and simple sugar.
Don’t fast!

School

It’s a common misconception that being both a student and an athlete is hard, if not impossible. Participating in sports can actually have a positive impact on school. There are many athletes do better academically. Sports force you to organize your time so that you can both go to practice and finish your homework. The key is finding a balance. If you can learn to organize your time then you can succeed in both.

Leadership Skills

Being in a team makes you a good leader and also a good follower. Sports teams give you an opportunity to surround yourself with competitive people and role models, and learn from them both. You can demonstrate your own leadership through team captainships and individual actions to improve your team’s success.

Business/Financial

A Business in Texas? Not bad.

June 18, 2015 Published by: Melody Colby

Cutting of the opening ribbon in large companies is primarily done by the Chief Executive Officer, the head of the company. It is a sign that the company is open and is ready for business. Before large industries become tall buildings, it first started as a small business with just a rented office space.

Improving your business needs a good planning, preparation, and insight. In Texas, small businesses continue to thrive due to a variety of factors, including excellent geographic location, highly-skilled workforce, low tax burden, reasonable cost of living, predictable regulatory environment, and legacy of being wide open for business.

Note that new business owners should not hesitate to seek the guidance of a professional tax consultant, accountant, and attorney to help verify that all legal requirements are met before operating a business.

Why not start a business in Texas?

Business Structure and Name

Decide on a structure of your business. Once you settle on a legal structure, you will need to properly record the business name with the state and county. In the State of Texas, there are several legal options for setting up your business structure. Given the legal implications when choosing your business structure, new business owners should always seek the guidance of a professional tax consultant, accountant, and/or attorney to verify all legal requirements are met before choosing a business structure.

Legal Business Structures in the State of Texas

Sole Proprietorship
General Partnership
Limited Partnership
Registered Limited Liability Partnership
Limited Liability Company
Corporation

Decide on the type of business structure right for your situation. Sole proprietor and general partnerships may seem like easy choices, however, consider one of the corporate models, such as a limited liability company, LLC, which separates your personal assets, such as your house, from your business. This is important if the business defaults on debt or issued.

Where you register your business will depend on the business structure you choose. Sole proprietors and general partnerships register in their county; corporations file with the Texas Secretary of State.

A name may not be used by more than one corporation in the state. The Secretary of State will perform a name search to verify that no other corporation, limited partnership, or limited liability company in Texas is using the exact name selected.

Business Tax Responsibilities

Determine the potential tax responsibilities of the new business on the federal, state, and local level. Determine the federal, state, and local tax obligations. It is strongly recommended that a professional tax advisor, accountant, and/or attorney be consulted before starting a business.

Business Licenses and Permits by Business Type

Determine necessary licenses, permits, certifications, registrations, and authorizations for a specific business on the federal, state, and local level. The State of Texas does not require a general “business” license. However, there are a number of regulatory agencies that have licensing and permitting requirements based on the type of service, or products associated with your business.

Business Employer Requirements

There are various laws relating to employment of personnel. The final step in starting a business is determining the federal and state employer requirements. As an employer, you have labor, safety, and tax obligations.