Tips on Shopping For Homeowners Insurance

http://mcgrawrealtygroup.com/2011/12/shopping-for-homeowners-insurance/

Shopping For Homeowners Insurance

When shopping for homeowners insurance, take it in three steps. These three steps will streamline your shopping experience and find you the best possible deal quickly (it's not necessarily Geico). Let me first say, once you get a quote, share it with the other guys. That may seem mean to the person who worked up the first quote, but it saves the other guys time in asking "what kind of coverage do you want...?" Just tell them to match what is worked up in "Quote A", and if they can beat it, then they can, if they can't, then too bad for them. This is insurance, and they're aware they can't always win.

Step 1) Decide on what kind of coverage you will need

. If you are in a homeowners association, you will need to know what kind of insurance is already offered. In a condo it isn't uncommon for you to cover the interior only, or the association may just cover everything for you. When you get quotes, check to see how much it will be if you combine your auto policy. Typically you will get a discount for your auto for having your home on the policy, and you will get a discount for home if you have your auto on the policy. So when you shop for rates (in step 3), get quotes for combining all three. In my experience, it ended up costing less to add the condo then what we were paying for the vehicles without a condo on the policy. Add a condo, save money, who knew!

Step 2) Get this information together

• VIN (Vehicle Identification Numbers) for every vehicle on the policy
• DL# (Drivers Licence Numbers) for every person who will be on the policy

This will help them determine previous claims or tickets that may affect your premium

Address of your new home

SS# (Social Security Numbers) for every person who will be on the policy

I don’t know why this is necessary, maybe I’m a little to trusting, but they asked for it

The rest of what you read below will take you through what we learned in Logan about Homeowners insurance when shopping for a policy that would cover $25,000 personal property, and $10,000 internally. When we started this, we were paying about $800 annually for insurance on two vehicles.

Step 3) Shop For Rates

This is my experience with the following agencies: Farm Bureau, Cache Valley Insurance, Logan Insurance, Geico, and American Family Insurance.

What Our Mortgage Broker Suggested – Logan Insurance Company

Because the process of finding just one more thing for our condo appeared that it was going to be a pain, I just asked the mortgage broker who we should go for our home owners insurance, and she suggested Dave Morrill with the Logan Insurance Agency. Because she deals with this all the time, I figured her advice would be excellent, and it was. Dave found us a great rate which would actually cost us less than what we were paying before with our car insurance, and at the same time we were adding a condo to the policy! Dave was very professional and excellent to work with. His quote came in at about

Geico

Our auto policy was with Geico, and believe it or not, they have actually been incredible for us to work with! When I got in an auto accident a few years back, I earned $1,200 from it (even though my vehicle isn’t totally fixed). When I added Jessica to the policy the total cost actually went down on our insurance.

But when it came time for us to add a condo to the policy, they were going to add an extra $300 a month. No dice.

Cache Valley Insurance

I like these guys, I’ve worked with them before. They were going to work up a policy, and may have called my phone (which died), but I asked for an e-mail. In the end, I never heard from them, and that’s their loss. I hope if you try to call them, you will hear from them.

Josh Barnett Insurance Agency – America Family Insurance

I also called Josh and had them work up a quote. Josh was really fun to talk to, but in the end he was less than Geico, but still higher than Dave Morrill at the Logan Insurance Company. I was actually enticed by him at first, but then we realized that the quote was for semi-annual auto insurance.

Farm Bureau Insurance – The Winner

One thing that is a little bit annoying about Farm Bureau is that they have this $65 annual membership fee. This will get you better deals on hotels and such, but I don’t want discounts on things that I won’t use, I just want insurance. They were also the slowest to get back to me, I was about to just go with Logan Insurance, but gave them a reminder e-mail saying “Hey, I want this now!” They then immediately got on the ball, and gave by far the best quote.

But in the end, their quote came in at $700 and we bumped up some of the auto coverage with them. So even with the added annual membership they were by far the best deal when combining an auto policy with a homeowners insurance policy! In fact, I’m still saving about a $100 a year compared to what a paid for before through Geico with car insurance only.

So, congratulations Farm Bureau, you are saving me money and adding more coverage! I am a very satisfied customer! I hope you enjoyed this review of Farm Bureau Insurance, American Family Insurance, Logan Insurance, Cache Valley Insurance, and Geico for homeowner insurance rates in Logan!

via kirksalisbury.com

Website Security in WordPress

In recent months there have been more website security attacks than I’ve ever seen before.  These attacks have mainly come in two different classes.

Malicious Virus Attacks

The first is just plain old malicious and mean – the type of attack that makes you wonder “do these people have a life?”  These attacks infect other websites which install software onto your computer and destroy it, unless you sale your soul to them.  Typically they will say “this virus can only be removed for X-amount of dollars.”  But these people are more clever so they disguise it. These cause physical damage which you can immediately see.  They may mask your website by giant words and an evil face that says “YOU’VE BEEN HACKED!”

Phishing Scams Attacks

These are very clever people who will inject code into your website which will copy any forms that you fill out, and acquire credit card information, address, telephone number, name, whatever they can gather. What they do with that information is then up to them. The most reason time I saw this was code was injected to the akismet plugin on a website, and created a fake “PayPal” page on the website. eBay then e-mailed use and let us know “a phishing scam is reported at such and such location.” Thank you eBay! We don’t want to be hosting anything bad.

How To Remove a Virus

Unfortunately, because we’ve had our share of experience in doing this, we have some tips to share. The first thing to do is install some antivirus software, that way your computer will not become a host for any viruses. You don’t have to install an expensive one. There is only one free one that I suggest, and it is provided by Microsoft – it’s called Microsoft Security Essentials. Download it here.

One of the main ways that hackers will inject a virus is to a theme where they’ve exposed vulnarabilities. The themes which are attacked most often are the themes which most popular have installed, such as the default WordPress themes. So update your current theme, and remove any other theme.

Much like themes, plugins are also attacked, and the most frequently used plugins are attacked the most. For example, as mentioned above the akismet plugin had fake eBay installed onto it, collecting PayPal information. Keep your plugins updated, and removed excess plugins. By removing the excess, you eliminate possibly entry points of a virus.

Next, there are several different plugins which you can install. I have tried some that others have recommended, and the most basic and effective one seems to the be the antivirus plugin. This will scan your theme and let you know where a line of code that may be a potential threat. Most of the threats that it points our are nothing that will actually cause a problem, but it does find things from time to time.

If you are suspecting anything now, then you can always reinstall WordPress. This does not mean start over, this simply means that update the WordPress files.  This means go to your core-updates and reinstall WordPress right there.

To summarize:

• Install Security Software
• Remove Unused Themes in WordPress
• Remove Unused/ Unnecessary Themes
• Update Every plugin, every theme, EVERYTHING as soon as an update is released.
• Install the AntiVirus plugin
• Reinstall WordPress

via realestatemarketingnerd.com

Reasons To Purchase Real Estate and Where To Purchase Real Estate

Wherever you purchase real estate is a completely personal choice, and there may be dozens of different reasons to purchase. This article emphasizes a few of the top choices to purchase real estate in an area according to your priority. So we’ll cover it all, from the best weather to the smartest investment areas.

Buying Real Estate as an Investment

The best places in the United States to purchase real estate as an investment are those who have drastically dropped in home prices, but have some good things going for them in the near future. For example, Atlanta Georgia home prices are far lower than what they were at just ten years ago, but the city is showing great signs of new growth which will reflect on new homes and more real estate purchases. So if you buy there now, that investment will increase in value in the very near short months.

Investing in real estate right now is probably the best investment that an investor could make. Interest rates are low, home prices are low, demand for rentals is up. There’s no question that buying a rental property will benefit you a ton!  So check out investment properties in Atlanta here!

Buying Real Estate for great Weather

This one is almost entirely up to you. If you want a home in a hot, dry climate, then Phoenix is your best choice. Real estate in Phoenix is cheap right now, and this city is a great area for people to love. Residents report that they love the atmosphere, and there are a variety of things to do here at all times.

If you are looking for a beautiful area that has four seasons, including an entertaining winter then Utah or Colorado are great choices. These areas provide entertaining activities year round – but getting into these activities can be expensive.  This site will be your perfect place to look for Homes in Colorado and around Denver.

Looking for real estate for top jobs

This category is more personal than perhaps any other, because it almost all depends on what type of profession you want. Of course, certain metro centers have their niche, but just about every profession is in every area. So if your job is in low demand, go where you are offered. If your job is in high demand, then go where the weather best suits you.

Consider this though, many of the people who make it big have some of their work roots in places like New York City, the economic capitol of the world, or Washington DC, the political capitol of the world.  Check out homes in Washington DC here.

Real Estate That Resembles You

Each one of these areas are diverse… so if you’re looking for something that will match your lifestyle, you’ll find it in any of these areas. So if you’re an artsy person, laid back, high strung, whatever, you’ll be able to find it in any of the above mentioned areas.

via mcgrawrealtygroup.com

Thank you, It's Been Fun

Hey folks, this site is no longer a going to be used anymore for my posts. I've bought my own domain, check it out. - Kirk Salisbury

Fayetteville Georgia

So I do a lot of bragging about northwest Atlanta where there is Marietta, and then far south of Atlanta where there is a wonderful place called Peachtree City... but I've been neglecting South Atlanta.

South Atlanta is a place where there are beautiful lakes, friendly as ever people, and good food. South Atlanta is where you go if you want to make a friend with the barber and just about everybody that you meet. This is a place called Fayetteville Georgia. Fayetteville has been through a hard time with housing recently though, so there are a load of cheap homes. Go check 'em out by clicking on that link I posted above.

Blogging Mood

Have you ever been in the blogging mood? If not, let me describe it: you have things on your mind, your want to tell somebody, your wife is reading a book, and your fingers want to move. Thus, blogging becomes the outlet.

Work is awesome! It's great to be able to do things that you really enjoy. For example, today I made a few websites, while working on several technical issues. The issues were that our previous host Dreamhost side note, Dreamhost is more of a nightmare than a dream . Because they kicked us off, we have to transfer lots of data to new sites and a new host. This has not been easy. If I were to write about all the steps it takes to make this work, it would put you to sleep. It's taken us a week! Anyway, while working on this issues I made two website - first was Cartersville Georgia Real Estate. Second was Buford Georgia Real Estate. Go take a look at them.

They are both awesome, as we use a theme called Elegant Themes. It's really useful, you hardly have to know how to do all the amazing things these days, you just have to know to use Google, and how to learn.

Vacuum Shopping

We recently bought a vacuum. Yay.

Here are my thoughts on the vacuum - it sucks. Okay, that was not intended to come out, but I started typing and couldn't stop.

I did about a days worth of research reading reviews, and going to the stores. In the end, this was the highest powered vacuum with all the features that we were looking for that seems to be durable. It better be durable!

The next day I go into work, tell my buddies about the experience, and the first thing I hear is "you got a Eureka? It's going to break." Well I got a Eureka, and it's not going to break, ok. I better not be wrong. Then I started hearing about Kirby vacuums, and how they are so awesome, and this and that.

Here's what I'm thinking, this vacuum sucks. If it lasts us 5 years, that's awesome. If it lasts 20, even better. I vacuum sparingly anyway, right? Alright, now if it lasts on average 3 years, after 30 years of vacuum replacements I will have replaced it 10 times. That's about $1500 bucks. That's still cheaper than one Kirby.

Between you and me, I'm never spending more than I 1,500 bucks on a vacuum - Eureka, you win.

Cape Coral

I can't believe it's been this long since anything has been posted. Once again, cool things are happening. All throughout the country I'm working for people in an industry I've never had previous experience with. Good old real estate.

So check out the latest thing that I've got going. This is for a websites in Florida. It's called Cape Coral Florida Homes dot com Cape Coral Homes .

Posting here about this is home, because it helps you know, and the in a roundabout way, it lets the entire world know about the best website on the planet for buying homes in that area.

Boomerang Leads

It's been ages since I've written here! I'm not graduated, have two part time jobs, and I work in an entirely different industry than before (which was sales). I guess I shouldn't say entirely different, because almost everything is sales. But I'm out of retail!

My two jobs are at 1) Extension Marketing and 2) Boomerang Leads. I'm enjoying both of them quite a bit, and I'm loving everything I learn there. I use to have this idea in my head that once graduation is done, I get to finish learning. But I think that the last week has been some of the most intense learning of my life! This might get addicting...

So here it is. At extension I do whatever people from all around the state want me to. My jobs range from accounting to human resources to web design and maintenance... I just get plenty to do. I love it.

At Boomerang Leads I get to make websites from scratch. And I mean from scratch. These websites go all the way back to purchasing a domain name. Check out some of my websites here.

A few of the samples of my work can be viewed at these sites. Keep in mind, construction is always ongoing.

OdessaTexasHomes.com
KennesawGeorgiaHomes.com
AcworthGeorgiaHomes.com
HomesForSaleRoswell.com
HomesForSaleinArlingtonTexas.com

You can also check out my other blog which I may post on from time to time at

kirkinternetmarketing.wordpress.com

I'm a graduate!

It's come and gone! Now I'm excited for the career phase of my life (though I'm even more excited for retirement).

Work hard, keep learning and improving... if I stick to that, I think everything is going to be great!

Graduation is just around the corner!

I'm going to graduate! And since it's been a year since my last post, I now am married to Jessica! She is also going to graduate, and commencement is in 48 days. I feel like I've done a lot of good preperation; volunteering here and there, taking my time and doing well in my internships. Now I just have to market myself.

That means that it is time for me to job hunt, and I'm starting now. I'm going to create a better looking website, as a portfolio of myself, take some time on LinkedIn, and attend as many outings with professionals as possible. Because Jessica is graduating as well, we are open to go just about anywhere, and close to family is a huge plus!

Wish me well. My next post should be soon, and it should have a link to a smart looking site of... myself. See you in the professional world!