Looking for a small way to give this holiday season? We have a great idea: Sears Hometown Stores has launched their Food Drive, which will run until the end of 2009. At each of the 950 stores located across the country, customers will have a chance to donate non-perishable canned and boxed foods and other needed items, like diapers, power towels and so on. Customers can drop donations off at donation boxes located at their nearby Sears Hometown Store.
Donations will be distributed to local shelters, food kitchens, after-programs, and similar organizations with an eye out for the needy.
This is the fourth year of the initiative; the past three years have seen over a half a million in food items collected and donated. It would be great to see folks step up and make contributions to their local Sears Hometown Store Food Drive and try to crack the million food item mark. In these recession years it's hard to question that need is as great as it has ever been.
As anticipated, the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers has been extended. Set to expire November 30 of this year, first-time homebuyers now have until May 1, 2010 to sign a sales contract on a new home. Income eligibility limits have also been increased from $75,000 to $125,000 for singles and from $150,00 to $225,000 for married couples.
Also, current homeowners may be eligible for a $6,500 tax credit when they purchase a new home, as long as they've lived in their current home for five consecutive years over the past eight. The new purchase must be a primary residence, and it must cost less than $800,000.
This is great news for the housing market and potential homebuyers. The $10.8 billion price tag on the extension/expansion is no small figure, but with pundits anticipating an additional 200,000 to 400,000 home sales by the end of the year due to the extension, one can be forgiven for calling the cost an acceptable one.
Who has taken advantage of the tax credit? Who plans to before it expires?
What does the H1N1 virus fear the most? If you guessed "a vaccine," "the World Health Organization" or "Purell," you are wrong. No, the unfortunately-named Swine Flu's greatest enemy is a hand-held vacuum-cleaner.
The new Raycop is no ordinary Dust-buster (it retails for about $199). This stingray-shaped sucker of soot has a built-in UV-C sterilizing lamp that allegedly kills 99.9% of the H1N1 virus, as well as other germs, dust mites and bacteria. It also has a vibrating pad that helps agitate the dust mites to release them from bed mattresses and other furnishings and a 2-stage micro allergy filtration system that eliminates the pesky purveyors of asthmatic allergens and their feces.
So while the surviving .01% of H1N1 may go on to mutate into a new "bison flu," "chicken flu," or "what-have-you flu," at least your home will be pretty safe against The Swine.
...and then recycle it, please! So could go the hip hop theme song for Owens Corning's recently launched shingle recycling program. The nation-wide program will have Owen's Corning Preferred Roofers pledging to recycle asphalt shingle tear-off and Heritage Environmental Services promising dedicated and convenient tear-off drop-off centers for the contractors.
So shingles are kept out of landfills and contractors get to set a good example to homeowners by employing sustainable building practices. Sounds like a win-win to me.
In addition to reducing the millions of tons of asphalt shingles that end up in landfills each year, the recycled asphalt can be used as a cost-effective alternative to making new asphalt that will be used on roads across the country. The Asphalt Institute estimated a potential $1 billion value on recycled asphalt. Okay, so it's really win-win-win.
Homeowners staring down the barrel of the foreclosure gun now have a stay of execution option that will keep them in their homes. Fannie Mae's recently announced Deed for Lease Program™ permits homeowners facing foreclosure to sign a lease to stay in their home in exchange for...the deed to their home. What was it they said about "desperate times?"
The program is aimed at those homeowners who don't qualify for a loan modification or other loan-workout solutions. In order to qualify, the home must be a primary residence, the borrower must be released from any subordinate liens, and the new market rental rate cannot exceed 31% of the borrower's income.
Leases created under the program are up to 12 months, with the possibility of a term renewal or a month-to-month extension after that.
After a little digging on FM's B2B sister website, efanniemae.com, I learned that once the deed has been turned over and the lease signed, Fannie Mae (the deed holder) reserves the right to market the property, even as the ex-homeowners are residing in their ex-home.
A call into Fannie Mae yielded little else in the way of specifics on the Deed for Lease™ (or D4L, as they call it) as the program is so new. While I'm not overly excited about the idea of exchanging a deed for a monthly rent, I suppose it beats getting snookered by a Loan Modification Scam or some other hoodwinkery.
Does your home contain contaminated Chinese Drywall? This testing advice from the New York Times can help a homeowner determine if he or she is one of the thousands in over 30 states with the poisonous plasterboard.
Some ways to tell if you have Chinese Drywall in your home:
- Sulfuric smell. (Also a sign that you have descended into the less-favorable Afterworld. It's best to inspect for fire, brimstone and the tortured souls of the eternally damned to eliminate this possibility)
- Blackened metal on bathroom fixtures and copper wires, coils and pipes. (Excessive blackening may also be the work of an enthusiastic cook in the home with a penchant for Cajun recipes.)
- Appliance failure due to corroded wiring. (Could also be failed payments on electric bill, or a burglar at the electrical panel having trouble finding the main circuit breaker).
On a serious note, there are some legitimate health concerns surrounding the contaminated product, and some of the signs that your home has Chinese Drywall include headaches and difficulty breathing.
Take the test, just to be safe.
If you do have it, you can choose to rip and rebuild, or there's a new treatment option that involves decontaminating the home with chlorine dioxide. The jury is out on that process, though.
We just want to applaud Sears Holding for launching its "Heroes at Home" Wish Registry, a program that gives support to military service members, veterans and family members. Sears customers can use the Heroes at Home website to make donations and buy gift cards for the more than 20,000 registered servicemen and women, military family members and veterans. Donations can also be made at Sears Hometown Stores retail locations across the country. Donation methods include converting Citi Reward points to donations, swapping old cell phones for free 60 minute calling cards that will go to a military family and turning in unused gift cards as a donation.
Visitors and donators can also view registered family profiles and post direct messages of support to military families.
With veterans and military service members facing a higher rate of unemployment than the civilian population, the Heroes at Home program is an easy way for the rest of the country to ease the burden of those returning from war and service and say "thank you" for the daily sacrifice they make on our country's behalf.
Sears Hometown Stores will also be launching a Food Drive on November 8th, so stay tuned.
