The real-estate slowdown has forced some investors to change tactics. Gone are the days when an investor could buy a single-family home or condo, flip it, and walk away with a sizeable profit just weeks or months later without much effort. But there’s one niche that continues to show promise for investors undaunted by the slumping housing market: college-town real estate. U.S. college enrollments are expected to increase by a minimum of 13% to 19.5 million between 2004 and 2015, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile, tighter budgets at many state schools are likely to limit construction of new on-campus accommodations. “Colleges don’t have the capital they need to develop student housing,” Mr. Bayless explains. Already, students are increasingly being forced to find housing elsewhere — a major advantage for investors looking to get into the rental market, says Mr. Zaransky, author of “Profit by Investing in Student Housing; Cash In on the Campus Housing Shortage” (Kaplan Publishing, 2006).

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Out of 131 million 1040s filed for 2004, there were 4 million math errors. If you make one of those 4 million errors, then mailing off your return is only the beginning of your headaches. Ernst & Young compiled a list of common errors. Some errors are simply careless. The easiest error to check if found with a a double-check of your math, the IRS does not give partial credit for getting the right formula but adding wrong. You might have done everything right, except for forgetting to carry a one, but the IRS doesn’t care. It will fine you for the difference. If, on the other hand, your careless math error leads you to overpay, who knows whether you’ll get that money back. It certainly could take a while.

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Many homeowners went a little crazy during the recent real estate boom. Convinced that prices would continue to rise indefinitely, people felt free to supersize their homes; the median size of an American home has increased 16 percent in the past decade, to 2,227 square feet. Bigger homes, of course, come with higher property tax bills, and they cost more to wire and keep heated and cooled. Meanwhile, lenders churned out new types of loans with low initial payments and, as the real estate market spiraled to new heights over the past few years, loosened borrowing restrictions. Stretching the limits of affordability wasn’t a problem when interest rates were plummeting and home prices were zooming. Then, homeowners who had trouble making payments could easily refinance or unload their home for a big profit. That’s no longer the case. Recently lenders have begun tightening their standards, and if your home hasn’t appreciated, you may not be able to refinance easily.

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In these times of depressed home sales, excess inventory, foreclosures, bankruptcies, short sales and a general real estate down turn, inventory of for-sale homes is at an all-time high. With sellers doing everything they can to move property, this article from Homes101 discusses the consequences of non-disclosure. So, what if you determine that your seller knew about the upcoming assessment? Does that make him legally obligated to disclose this to you?

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Every year, millions of young Americans leave the loving embrace of their parents’ home or student housing for an apartment of their own, and it takes only a little education to keep this rite of passage from turning into a hazing. Here are 10 things that experts say you should know (and that experienced renters say they learned the hard way).

· Location Matters. Visit potential neighborhoods a few times, at different times of day, before settling down. “It might look fine on a Wednesday afternoon, but factors like noise, parking and security can change at night or on weekends,” said Peggy Luers, coordinator of off-campus housing services at California State University at Sacramento. Luers’s office, and others like it at universities around the country, are great places for first-time renters to find legal information, advice, even apartment listings. These offices also have insider information you won’t get from friends or family — for example, that neighborhoods near college campuses might not be the best places to rent.

· The landlord is not your buddy. Your landlord might be perfectly nice, but your relationship is about business, not friendship. “First-time renters tend to be somewhat naive,” Boysen said. “You need a dose of cynicism.” That means checking into your potential landlord’s reputation before you sign a lease. Even if the landlord passes this test, Boysen cautions that you still shouldn’t let your guard down. Get everything in writing, even something as simple as an assurance of when a problem will be fixed, and keep copies of all documentation and correspondence between you and the landlord. (more…)

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Alexis Idone is so committed to buying organic that she recently went to three different stores in search of an elusive item: organic cotton balls. With organic food surging in popularity, retailers are now taking the concept beyond the grocery aisle. A flurry of companies are pitching organic furniture, linens, cosmetics — even so-called organic leather. But organic nonfood products aren’t as tightly regulated as food. And even if something is made with organic material, some industry experts say, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s 100% environmentally friendly.

Consumer sales of organic fiber for things like clothes and linens totaled $160 million in 2005, up 44% from the previous year, according to the Organic Trade Association, an industry group based in Greenfield, Mass. Demand is being driven by retailers all over the country who are introducing or expanding lines of “green” or “eco-friendly” products. Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s Pottery Barn is rolling out a new line of duvets, sheets and towels made with organic cotton this spring. Furniture and textile designer Q Collection will soon introduce a line of organic bedding for children. Retailer Gaiam has even added organic cotton shower curtains to its product line. The industry is catering to people like Ms. Idone, a 42-year-old creative director from New York. Besides the organic cotton balls, Ms. Idone also has her eye out for an organic sweater for her dog. “I don’t want chemicals going into my body or the environment,” she says. (more…)

The popularity of some finishes — paint colors, for example — simply depends on the cyclical comings and goings of fashion. Color fads are largely created by the industries involved, although clever marketing makes it seem like consumers are driving the demand. And since the prior color fad must be portrayed as unappealingly dated before the “new” colors can perk up sales again, successive color trends are intentionally extreme, running from pastels to primaries to whites to deep saturated tones, the better to differentiate what’s hip from what’s hopelessly passé.

New technologies bring other types of finishes to the fore. In the mid-19th century, for instance, raw brass, which tarnished to a clove-brown color if it wasn’t kept polished, was the usual material for hardware and plumbing fittings. In the late 1880s, though, the introduction of nickel-plated fittings quickly made tarnished brass obsolete. Despite nickel’s propensity to wear through to the metal underneath, it remained popular until the arrival of more durable chromium-plated finishes around 1930.

Chrome has had an exceptionally long popular run because of its ease of maintenance. Still, when earth-toned colors were being pushed during the 1970s, brass came back for an encore. This time, though, a clear lacquer coating was used in an attempt to keep it permanently shiny. Eventually, in their never-ending pursuit for fresh offerings, manufacturers also came up with artificially patinated finishes — brushed brass, antique brass, and the like — that tried to mimic the warmth of natural patination. (more…)

Two senior Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday they were considering legislation to restrict risky mortgage lending practices and protect borrowers after news that foreclosures in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector were rising. Lawmakers joined U.S. banking regulators and federal prosecutors in focusing on the widening problems in the subprime lending industry that provides mortgages to consumers with weak credit.

n the U.S. Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record) said he may offer a bill to protect consumers who were “victimized” by subprime mortgages they can no longer afford. “What I’m worried about is we may have as many as two million foreclosures in the next 18 months for mortgages written after 1998. And we may have to do something to protect these homeowners that could otherwise lose everything,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told Reuters. “It’s potentially $164 billion at stake.” On the other side of Capitol Hill, the chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee said he planned legislation that would restrict overly risky mortgages now that the subprime market is in turmoil. (more…)

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About 10 years ago, a large Manhattan real estate firm bought an apartment building that contained a few rent-controlled units. Deregulated, those units would be worth perhaps five to seven times more on the open market — if the developer could nudge the remaining tenants down the road, that is. One of them, a senile older woman who had been living there for decades, refused to leave.

Landlords also may try to whack you extra for taking on a roommate or an extended house guest — even though federal housing statutes prohibit landlords from raising rents on tenants who do so. There are limits, of course, so you can’t pile in your whole extended family. What’s typical is two individuals per bedroom, plus one. So, up to three people (including children) can reside in your one-bedroom apartment before the landlord can jack up the rent or issue an eviction notice. If your landlord really gives you the creeps, consider buying renter’s insurance. The cost is minimal (maybe $10 to $30 a month) compared with what you might lose in repair costs and lawyers’ fees. (Read more about renter’s insurance, here.) Really fed up with your landlord? Extract your own pound of flesh by knowing the law. Example: Tenants in Chicago can collect twice the amount of their security deposits if they can prove that landlords stick rent checks and security deposits in the same bank account, says attorney Aaron Krolik. (Most banks can help you track down this information.) If that doesn’t work, Chicago renters can double their pleasure if their landlords blank on paying the stipulated interest on security deposits, currently 1.7% a year. (more…)

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