British Home vs American Homes

Politics in the USA is making some people on both the left and right threaten to leave if the other person gets elected. OK. Don't forget we can help you sell your house.

Also, things are a bit different in other countries. Just an FYI.

For example...

Wherever you may go around the world, it’s easy to conclude that if a home has four walls and a ceiling, everything else must be broadly the same. Well, even if that were true (and it’s not) there are still tiny differences between a house on the other side of the world and the house you normally live in that can be quite unsettling the first time you encounter them.

So, having conducted extensive research into American and British households (by comparing notes between the traveling experiences of Anglophenia writers) what are the things that are commonly recognizable to most British households that will come as a surprise to most American visitors?

To avoid getting stung by unexpected bills for gas and electricity, some British households use a system whereby they go to a local shop and have credit placed on an electronic tag called a PayPoint key. Just as a pay-as-you-go phone gives you a set amount of credit to make and receive calls, so the PayPoint key gives you a certain amount of gas, electricity or even water. This is just a modern update on the old system which relied upon putting coins in a meter.

Due to a healthy fear of electrocution, British bathrooms don’t tend to be wired up for electricity, as it does not play nicely with water. The noble exception to this rule is the two-pin electric shaver socket, which can either be wall-mounted or part of the light over a mirror. Some bathrooms don’t even have the light switch in the room: It’s out in the hall or landing, just by the door. It’s worth checking this before you find yourself feeling a wall in the middle of the night while busting for a pee.

This is worth getting right before you’re in too much of a hurry. Should you need to use the conveniences, ask for a bathroom and you may be directed to a room with a bath in it, but no toilet. The Brits are terribly literal like that. By all means, ask if you can use the toilet, or the lavatory, or the loo, and they will immediately direct you to the nearest room in which you can do your business.

Curated from 10 Things About a British Home That Will Confuse Americans | Anglophenia | BBC America

Your Rent Is Going To Continue To Increase

If the monthly rent check is already painful to write, brace yourself.

The Census Bureau's U.S. rental vacancy rate, which tracks the share of properties that are unoccupied, fell to 6.8 percent in the second quarter. That's the lowest level using comparable data since 1985.

The short supply of units means "rental inflation is not going away anytime soon," Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research LLC, wrote in a note to clients.

Already rents have climbed 3.5 percent in the 12 months through June, matching the biggest jump since 2008, Labor Department data show. That far outstrips the increase in consumer prices excluding food and fuel, which gained 1.8 percent in the same period.

While that may be good news for Federal Reserve policy makers who'd like to see inflation go higher, it may limit the amount of money consumers can spend on things besides shelter.

The rising demand for rental units is being driven by a surge in household formation. Some 1.6 million new households have come online in the last year, the Census data show, and all of that increase has come from renters. The number of owner-occupied households fell by 400,000 in the second quarter from a year earlier.

As a result, rents are "set to accelerate," wrote Ed Stansfield and Andrew Hunter, economists at Capital Economics Ltd., in a note to clients. "Our forecasts that rents will grow at an annual rate of  5 percent both this year and next would represent the fastest rate of rental growth since the 1980s."

Rents rising that quickly may make homeownership much more attractive for those who can afford it. That, combined with the improving outlook for employment and incomes, means the "homeownership rate will soon find a floor," they wrote.

(An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect revised data on the change in household formation and owner-occupied units.)

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A short supply of available units is pushing up rents

by Victoria Stilwell

Originally published at Your Rent's About to Get Even Higher

Productivity Tip From Jack Reacher

#Productivity Tip for ya today... from #Jack Reacher In the film Jack #Reacher, title character played be #Tom Cruise, he is having #a conversation with another character who uses the word "Someday".

Jack Reacher responds,

"Someday. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for ‘never’."

What are you putting off until "someday"?

Stay Productive Keep Focused Be Consistent

- Darin Persinger

The Huge Mistake Of Looking For This In Business, Life or House Hunting

A big bucket of ice cold water in the face of fantasy today.

"No great deed is done by falterers who ask for #certainty." - George Eliot

If you are looking for certainty... you will be wandering the dry barren desert of the 'wasteland of what could have been' for the rest of your life.

Certainty is not for the entrepreneur... it's not for the self-employed... it's not for the #business owner... it's not for the home buyer.

Certainty use to be for those who wanted a JOB. A paycheck every 2 weeks... State, federal, FICO withholding... Here is what you get to live on... Make your dreams, desires and wants fit inside what is left.

But, there is no certainty in the job market in today's world. So even that certainty is gone.

Just like Neo had to realize that there is no spoon in order to bend the spoon.

You have to realize there is no certainty to find certainty.

The annoying thing about marketing and productivity, for most people, is that it is impossible to know ahead of time what is going to work and what's not.

The frustrating thing about the house hunting process, for most people, is that it is is impossible to know ahead of time if the home they find will be "the one", in a great neighborhood, increase greatly in value and not have any issues with it.

The annoying thing for me, is that this in fact exactly what most people want. They want certainty. I can't offer that.

No one can give you certainty.

No one in your facebook group can offer up certainty about whatever [insert productive/service/app here] will work.

But that is what everyone shows up in those facebook groups for... Looking for certainty.

"What do you think about ________?"

"Do you think ___________ will work?"

"Anyone have success with _____________?"

And then what follows is a stream of comments confirming or denying it will work.

There is no certainty to be found there. Why are you still looking?

That is why you must, #Invest. And Test.

I can tell you with great confidence if something is good or bad. I can let you know what idea, principle or theory is a good one when it comes to website marketing, lead generation, email marketing, sales letters, etc.

But, even the good ones, don't always work.

It reminds me of the time my Dad was trying to sell his boat at a marina. It wasn't selling. My Dad was getting frustrated and asked the sales manager why it wasn't selling.

The sales manager's response was brilliant...

"You know, I wish I could tell you Lloyd, but the really nice boats just don't seem to be selling right now."

Here is maybe the one piece of certainty I can offer you...

You will fail to achieve better results in #your business if you don't #invest and test. You'll never know if a home is the "right one" if you don't buy it.

One last quote on certainty...

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." - Voltaire

You might have your doubts about something in your life, but what are you going to do about it?

... continue to look for certainty (that is absurd)? Or invest and test?

• Stay Productive
• Keep Focused
• Be Consistent

- Darin Persinger