Your home is considered a sanctuary where you should feel safe but is your home really safe once you leave? According to the FBI, a burglary occurs somewhere in the United States every 15.4 seconds and occurs during the daytime when most people are away at work or school. But you do not have to be a victim, follow the below tips to help minimize your risk by making your home unattractive to potential burglars.

• Change all the locks and alarm passwords when you move into a new house.
• Your house should appear occupied at all times. Use timers to switch lights and radios on and off when you’re not at home.
• All exterior doors should be solid-core doors with heavy-duty dead bolts installed in a sturdy frame with long screws so they can’t be kicked open.
• If you lose your keys, change the locks immediately.
• Planting thorny shrubs, rosebushes or cacti around the outside of your home can discourage burglars from entering your property.
• Instead of keeping a spare key in a mailbox, under the doormat, or on a nail behind the garage, wrap the key in foil — or put it in a 35mm film can — and bury it where you can easily find it if you need it.
• Don’t leave notes for service people or family members on the door. These act as a welcome mat for a burglar.
• Keep all points of entry to your home well-lit. Consider installing motion-sensor lights on the rear and sides of your home and position them in out-of-reach places so they can’t easily be turned off by a would-be thief.
• Talk to your neighbors about any suspicious people or strange cars you notice lurking about.

Home security starts with you and creating a safe home environment includes more than just installing good locks on your doors or setting up security systems. It is important to make sure all members of the family are educated on the importance of security. Use common sense, always remember to lock the doors, be alert for suspicious activity and never answer the door for someone you don’t know.

Do you want to buy a home but feel you cannot because you have bad credit? The reality is you are not alone. The average American now carries about $8,000 in credit card debt and bankruptcy rates have soared over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, filing for bankruptcy stays on your credit history for 10 years, and can significantly lower your credit score.

The good news is that there are many mortgage companies who specialize in working with consumers with no credit history or bad credit. They can help you to get a clear picture of where you stand and what steps you need to take to achieve your goal of home ownership. In addition, if you find a lender who will loan you money to buy a house you still have a good chance of a low interest rate, even with bad credit. Since interest rates are at 40-year lows, the current interest rate available to those with poor credit is still less than 8 percent, which, historically, is a great interest rate.

The lending market can be broken up into two main segments, the prime, those with average to good credit who are not huge financial risks. Then there is the sub prime market, with those who have poor to very bad or no credit. Lenders can give ratings to a certain sub prime client giving them a rating from A-D: A being the best rating and D being the worst. When you fall into the C or D category, you are considered very high risk and more likely to default on a loan than that of a person with an A or B rating.

Sub prime lenders generally give loans to even the highest of risk cases. They look at the same information that a prime lender would look at to evaluate the type mortgage you can have. They look at credit history, income, expenses and long term debt. Even if you do have foreclosures, bankruptcies, delinquent payments, and outstanding debt, they will take all of this into consideration. If you can show steady employment, a good income, an effort to pay back the money you owe and are doing it in a timely fashion, you are more likely to get a better rate than that of someone who is not taking any steps to fix their credit.

Fortunately the sub prime market is extremely competitive, even for the worst credit cases, so you do not have to accept the first lender who offers to loan you money. Take your time, do your research and shop around and compare rates.

Everyone makes mistakes, and buying a home is still an option regardless of your credit history. And, as long as the sub prime market continues to be competitive, you, the consumer is at a huge advantage. Keep in mind however; it is important to take steps to repair your credit, and buying a home can aid in this. If you make you mortgage payments on time every month, then you can actually help to get your credit back on track.

So go buy your home and repair your credit at the same time! Take advantage of the opportunities you have at your fingertips.

If you are like most people, you are decorating the house, putting up lights and getting your home ready for the holidays so it will be perfect when your guest arrive. You may also have been wanting to complete those home improvement projects that you have put off all summer but also are wondering, ‘can I really do it myself?’ The answer is “YES!” With a little research and some hard work, you can fix, repair, build on or enhance you home. Some people also call it ‘sweat equity’, there is even a show on the do it yourself network named this, they have tons of tips and step by step directions for most any project, check out their website http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_dseq/.

By doing it yourself you are not only saving money because you are not hiring someone else to do it, you are also increasing the value of your home. In addition, there is a certain satisfaction that results from completing a project with your own two hands. Even so, there are some guidelines you should try to follow to make the most out of your project.

• Safety first! Always use eye protection, and dress for safety: wear sturdy clothing, boots, gloves and safety glasses.
• Experts suggest you first start small and steer clear of your home’s major components — bearing walls, foundations, roofs, and major electrical, mechanical or plumbing work.
• Get the best. Build with quality equipment, materials and workmanship. Skimping up front means skimping on the boost-in-value end.
• Do your homework first. Research local building and zoning codes, secure all necessary permits before you start and go to the local home improvement store for some strategic advice about performing the job. Be sure to bone up on the specific components involved in your project.
• Keep drill bits, blades and cutters sharp; dull tools are dangerous.

For more information and advice to help get you started, check out these helpful sites!

http://www.bobvila.com/
http://www.alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/household-homerepairs.html

While it may seem hard to believe, if you live in Atlanta, your home is likely worth more today than it was a year ago. Recently, two studies have highlighted the strength of metro Atlanta housing prices, even as most other parts of the nation have seen price declines of up to 10 percent over last year.

The first study followed the S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index, which claims to be the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Covering data through August of 2007, it shows declines in the prices of existing single family homes in 15 of the 20 metro areas surveyed. The study showed the area with the largest decline was metro Tampa, which showed a double-digit drop of 10.1 percent since August of 2006.

Tampa is not the only area shown significant weak performance, home price drops were seen in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami and New York. In addition, both San Diego and San Francisco made the list of losers, leading to the conclusion that those areas hardest hit were the same ones that had experienced rapid price run-ups in recent years.

Atlanta was among the five gainers, but claimed less than a 1 percent increase over the period. Areas reporting the biggest price gains were Seattle at 5.7 percent, followed by Charlotte at 5.6 percent. Portland showed a 2.8 percent increase, while Dallas squeaked out a gain of half a percent for the past year.

A main reason Atlanta is showing the ability to retain even a minimum level of price appreciation is that price gains over the past decade were modest compared with many parts of the nation. It seems that Atlanta’s housing prices were fueled more by job growth and relocation than by the frenzy and speculation that drove some areas.

This conclusion is supported by a recently released study of America’s metropolitan areas by the Brookings Institution, called Blueprint for American Prosperity. This study concludes that America stands in a position of economic strength, but that we need to leverage key assets such as innovation, human capital and infrastructure. The study also suggests that these assets tend to concentrate principally in our nation’s major metropolitan areas.

This particular study also produced what it calls MetroNation Profiles, a sort of state-by-state review of the top 100 metropolitan areas, and gives statistics associated with those areas, highlighting the importance of these economic engines. In this study, metro areas often cross state boundaries.

Within this study, Georgia contains all or part of three of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Augusta and Chattanooga — which alone account for 60 percent of the state’s population, 62 percent of the state’s jobs, and 71 percent of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). All 15 of Georgia’s metros constitute 81 percent of the state’s population, 84 percent of the state’s jobs, and 89 percent of the state’s GDP.

It is a widely known fact that home prices tend to follow job growth, and if an area’s prices are holding up well in the current real estate market, there should be a correlation with job growth. The study found metro Atlanta was ranked 10th in job growth among all metro areas nationwide, with some 67 percent of all jobs in the state being Atlanta-based. However, despite this great news, the fact that home prices in metro Atlanta are up will come as a surprise to most Atlantans, most are convinced that real estate prices were down significantly.