Harness the Web to Sell Your HomeWritten by Jacqui O'Brien
The majority of people in UK who are looking to move house use internet to find properties for sale. So it makes sense to ensure that your property is on web if you want to sell. If you are with an estate agent, most will list your property on one of major property portals. However more and more people, tired of paying thousands of pounds to estate agents who do little work, are voting with their feet and deciding to sell their home by themselves. There are over 100 websites in UK where you can advertise your home for sale, ranging from a basic text listing to a full internet estate agent service. However most will have a limit to amount of information which you can add and number of photographs which you can include. Often this will be much less information than in an estate agent’s details. The answer is to create your own webpage to sell your house. You don’t have to be a great computer expert, and you could do it all in an evening, using this step by step plan. Where can I host my webpage? Maybe you have some free webspace offered by your Internet Service Provider. Now is time to use it! If you know a little about web design you are very lucky, as all you need is some very basic knowledge of HTML and you are ready to make an effective webpage. If not, you can use a word processing package such as Microsoft Word which will convert a document to a webpage. If you don’t have webspace you can use free webspace offered by well-known search engines such as Lycos Tripod or Yahoo Geocities. Most will have website building packages too, so that you can simply enter information into a template and you have an instant website. Write a concise title for your page Write one sentence using as few words as possible which sum up your property, for example ‘For Sale: Three-bedroom semi-detached house in London’. Use this as your page title. Prepare your details However you decide to create your webpage, prepare your details beforehand using word processing package. You can do this in your own time, it will check your spelling for you and you won’t lose all your work if your browser crashes. Measure all your rooms and give measurements in both metric and imperial. Remember to add anything interesting or unusual about house, special about its location and mention if it is in catchment for a good school.
| | Succession Planning: Problems Getting StartedWritten by Dr. Michael A. S. Guth, Ph.D., J.D.
A survey released by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in spring of 2005 illustrates a widespread problem on lack of succession planning [deciding who will take over running firm when current managers die or retire]. The survey found that 60% of responding certified public accountant (CPA) firms have owners who are in 55-to-62-year-old age bracket, and more than half (56%) have at least one partner who will retire in next five years. However, according to survey, 81% of these firms still do not have a written succession plan in place. Among those firms with annual revenues under $150,000, percentage rose to 96%. If we polled small businesses in other fields, percentages would be comparable: around 80% of small business owners have no succession plans. Similarly, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) reports about 40% of small and medium business owners in Canada plan to leave or retire in next five years, and 70% plan to leave or retire within 10 years. However, roughly two-thirds of 4,300 Canadian businesses that responded to federation’s survey have completed no succession planning. Small and medium businesses account for about half of jobs in Canadian economy, and potentially more than two million jobs could be at risk to inadequate succession planning. For many of these small and medium business owners, practices they have built up are their most valuable assets as well as their primary retirement assets. But these owners believe they have plenty of time to arrange for succession. Many business owners put off dealing with succession because it is least urgent matter on their plate. Too often business owners cannot stand idea of letting go of an entity they created and for which they toiled to achieve success. Apparently, these small and medium business owners need assistance both in formulating plans and in actual transitioning to future managers and owners of firm. Succession planning, like tax planning, is just good common sense and should be a natural part of good business practices. As soon as business owners take out life insurance policies to protect their assets for dependents left behind, they need to think of succession planning. If business owners have children who do not wish to follow in their parent’s business, then business owners need to think realistically about price they would be willing to sell business to outsiders. In one sense, these business owners who plan to sell to outsiders are lucky that they can avoid emotionally divisive issue of having to select a business heir from competing adult children or competing managers.
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