If you live in a townhouse and find your electric bill is high even after you’ve cut back on usage, call your electric company and make sure they’re charging you for the right electricity meter and the correct meter reading. Don’t pay for your neighbor’s power!
Elizabeth J.

Midtown New York Got Even Hotter in July
July added more heat to the already-hot 2006 midtown New York office market. CBRE reports that the market had 410,000 sf in positive absorption for the seven months ended July 31, including 200,000 sf in July alone. Total leasing activity of 1.86 million sf in July exceeded the market’s average monthly total by 48%. Asking rents for class-A space in midtown increased by 60 cents/sf to $59.15/sf in July. The market’s total availability rate dropped in July to 8.5%.

When you, a borrower, go to a lender with some solid collateral, most lenders rush to make a load to you. Why? Because lenders know that if the loan goes bad, they can sell the collateral and get their money back. And – as you probably know – every lender loves money and wants to have every loan repaid in full and on time!

Meanwhile, of course, they’re earning interest on your loan. And earning interest is their biggest goal in life, after helping their borrowers.

To acquire your second residential income property, follow the following 5 steps:

If you think the marekt value established for your property is too high:

You can challenge the assessment. Start with the government office that establishes the assessment.

You most likely will have to provide actual sales comparables that show that houses nearly identical to yours sold for less than the vlaue the assessor has given your property.

Alternatively, you can find assessments of houses similar to yours that are lower, and use those as a basis of your complaint. Assessed values are a matter of public record and you should be able to access them.