Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Monday, October 26, 2020

7 Reasons to Own a Home

 


WHAT TO KNOW

7 Reasons to Own A Home

1.       Tax benefits.
The U.S. Tax Code lets you deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage, your property taxes, and some of the costs involved in buying a home.

2.      Appreciation.
Historically, real estate has had a long-term, stable growth in value. In fact, median single-family existing-home sale prices have increased on average 5.2 percent each year from 1972 through 2014, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.  The recent housing crisis has caused some to question the long-term value of real estate, but even in the most recent 10 years, which included quite a few very bad years for housing, values are still up 7.0 percent on a cumulative basis. In addition, the number of U.S. households is expected to rise 10 to15 percent over the next decade, creating continued high demand for housing.

3.       Equity.
Money paid for rent is money that you will never see again, but mortgage payments let you build equity ownership interest in your home.

4.      Savings.
Building equity in your home is a ready-made savings plan. And when you sell, you can generally take up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) as gain without owing any federal income tax.

5.      Predictability.
Unlike rent, your fixed-rate mortgage payments don’t rise over the years so your housing costs may actually decline as you own the home longer. However, keep in mind that property taxes and insurance costs will likely increase.

6.      Freedom.
The home is yours. You can decorate any way you want and choose the types of upgrades and new amenities that appeal to your lifestyle.

7.       Stability.
Remaining in one neighborhood for several years allows you and your family time to build long-lasting relationships within the community. It also offers children the benefit of educational and social continuity.


Video of Post found here

James Phillips, Jr. "Committed Excellence and Integrity" HER Realtors   www.jamesphillipsjr.com


                               



Sunday, October 25, 2020

Friday, October 16, 2020

Ascents - 5 Point Procedures

 

Ascents - 5 Point Procedure


The five points are as follows:

Step 1: SIGNAL BUDDY
As always you and your buddy are diving close to each other. After looking at your SPG (Submersible Pressure Gauge) you have determined that it is time to start to head up. You signal your buddy using your pre-determined signals that you want to go up or need to go up. Your buddy in turns returns the "up" signal. Again, you do this as a buddy team, and only when you are both agreed and facing each other do you start with the next step.

Step 2: NOTE TIME
If you remember from the five point descent, you looked at you watch for the start time of the dive. Now you must again look at your watch for the end bottom time or BT. This is not really your end dive time but for calculating your dive profile using standard dive tables, this is the time that you use. A little confusing ? Let me try to clear it up. The actual dive time for a profile is the start of your descent till the time you start up again. This is of course considered a straight line profile. In other words you are using a standard table and not the PADI wheel. The PADI wheel is used to help calculate multi-level stops along the way up. I may cover this in more details, if I get a question on it.

Step 3: ONE HAND OVER HEAD AND ONE HAND ON BCD CONTROLS
Once you have the time you locate with your left hand the BCD controls, ie, where you will release air. And with your right hand you raise it up over your head. This may seem obvious, but I have seen many divers who do not do this step. You need to have your hand up to make clear the approach to the top.

Step 4: LOOK UP
As you raise your hand up you look up to see where you are going. You want to make sure that you are noting going to hit a boat, or a boat hits you. Although boatings are required to stay a certain distance from divers. Each state has a different distance, so check with the local dive shop to find out. Bare in mind that you are required to dive with a dive flag, so boaters will know where you are. Just a thought for safety. This flag says, "Divers down, stay away". But to be safe, still reach up and look up.




Step 5: SWIM UP SLOWLY BY ROTATING AROUND
Last step is to swim up slowly while turning in a 360 deg rotation. Again, this lets you see all around so if anything is coming from another angle, you will be able to see it.