Indexes Commercial Real Estate Investors Should Know

!±8± Indexes Commercial Real Estate Investors Should Know

Consumer Price Index (CPI): It is the measure of inflation as experienced by urban consumers. CPI is more well-known among senior citizens as their Social Security benefit checks are adjusted to the CPI on January to keep pace with inflation. While most commercial real estate leases have fixed annual rent increases, e.g. 2%, some have annual rent increases based on the CPI. Therefore, knowing what CPI is and how to calculate it is an important factor in making a sound investment decision.

The US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data about costs of various things from 87 urban areas in the US. The data is published each month and available from the website stats.bls.gov. The CPI varies for different regions: Northeast urban, Midwest urban, South urban, West urban, US city average, as well as 14 major metro areas.

So, knowing which CPI stated in the lease will enable an investor to correctly calculate the rent increase. For example, the CPI for US city average was 190.9 in Oct 2004 and 199.2 in October 2005. This reflects a 4.3% increase for the above period or in another words, the inflation was 4.3% during that period. So if the rent from October 2004 to September 2005 was 00/month and the lease has CPI-based rent increase, then the new rent from October 2005 to September 2006 would be 43 a month or 4.3% higher. The CPI fluctuates from time to time. When there is no inflation, the CPI is zero and thus there is no rent increase. It could also be negative during a deflationary period which in turn will translate to rent reduction for the tenant.

Cost of Living Index (COLI): COLI is a number that indicates the relative cost of living in various cities in the US with 100 being the average. Employers often increase an employee's salary when they relocate the employee to a city with higher COLI. The COLI is weighted according to percent of income spent on groceries (12.49%), housing (29.84%), utilities (9.94%), transportation (10.73%), healthcare (4.07%) and others (32.93%). You could obtain the indexes for various cities from http://www.infoplease.com/business/economy/cost-living-index-us-cities.html.

The website http://www.bankrate.com has a COLI comparison calculator for over 300 US cities which provides the costs of 60 various items in each city. In 2007, the COLI for San Francisco was 169.5 while Dallas was only 91.5. This means you would have had to earn 85% (169.5 minus 91.5 then divide by 91.5) more in San Francisco to maintain the same lifestyle in Dallas. Most of the costs will be higher in San Francisco, e.g. housing is 285% higher (housing index is 278.3 in San Francisco and 72.3 in Dallas), some expenses may be lower, e.g. utilities are 11% cheaper in San Francisco compared to Dallas (utilities index is 88.1 in San Francisco and 98.9 in Dallas).

An investor often reviews demographic data of a city where the property is located and generally prefers to invest in areas that are more affluent. However, looking at data of the Average Household Income (AHI) alone does not give you the whole picture. Let's assume you are an investor in the San Francisco Bay Area and you want to see how the AHI in Plano (Dallas metro) is compared with San Francisco income. You will have a better perspective if you adjust the AHI in Plano to the Cost of Living Index and then compare with the AHI in the San Francisco Bay Area. For example if the AHI is 0K a year in Plano, it would be equivalent to 5,000 in San Francisco. With this adjusted income, you know that Plano is an upper middle class area.

Indexes Commercial Real Estate Investors Should Know

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Moment of Inertia (MOI) And Swing Weight

!±8± Moment of Inertia (MOI) And Swing Weight

Moment of Inertia (MOI) governs how a bat feels and is a more meaningful measure of how well it will swing for you than the actual weight of the bat. Bat speed, not bat size nor weight, is the main factor in driving a ball. Bat speed is affected by a number of variables including bat length, bat weight and bat Moment of Inertia (MOI) which is often referred to as swing weight or balance point.

The distinction between light or heavy swing weight really boils down to the location of the balance point (or center-of-mass) and the moment-of-inertia. The closer the bat's balance point is to the handle, the easier it is to swing. The basic concept is that it is not the total overall weight of the bat which determines how fast you can swing a bat, but the way that weight is distributed along the length of the bat. For example, a bat with a balanced point closer to the handle will feel lighter and swing faster than an end loaded bat. This is true even through both bats are the exact same weight on a scale. The higher the rating the higher the MOI and the heavier the swing weight.

As a general rule, most players can hit a ball further with lighter (really low MOI) bats. It is only the biggest homerun hitters, who can hit the ball further with a heavier (really higher MOI) bats. Also, lighter bats provide more bat control during the swing phase.

Good players who are strong tend to prefer bats with a heavy swing weight because they can swing the bat fast enough and the extra inertia of the bat makes for a more effective collision with the ball. Players who are not as strong, or who cannot swing a heavy bat quickly, tend to opt for bats with a lighter swing weight so that they can increase their bat-swing speed and obtain faster batted balls that way.

Easton is one of the few manufacturers that promote the MOI of their bats and is the basis of their Hit Matrix bat concept. Here is the MOI ratings for their 2009 bats:

Stealth IMX - 90 MOI Rating Synergy IMX - 80 MOI Rating SV12 - 70 MOI Rating V12 - 60 MOI Rating

Obviously MOI is only one factor to consider with material, handle flex, mass and design (1 or 2 piece) being the others. But, it is often ignored or misunderstood. You should take the time and effort to decide what MOI is best for you and what the ratings are for the bats you're considering.

You can visit The Baseball Bat Reviews Blog for reviews of all the 2009 baseball bats.

Moment of Inertia (MOI) And Swing Weight

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What Are TMP Files and How Can I Delete Them?

!±8± What Are TMP Files and How Can I Delete Them?

Files ending with the extension TMP are frequently found on computers. So what are these TMP files? Well, as the file extension might suggest, they are temporary files. These files are typically created by applications to store some form of temporary data, in a permanent form than RAM, on your hard disk. TMP files are commonly produced either when a program can't allocate enough memory for its tasks, or as part of inter-process communication.

Modern operating systems usually employ a virtual memory system, where if a program exceeds its allotted memory space usage, it can provide the application with part of the hard disk space as a substitute for memory. Programs which use large amounts of data, like video editing software, may need to create many TMP files. TMP files are usually deleted automatically by their parent application (the software, game, application) which created them. However there may be instances where these files aren't removed from your computer and end up taking unnecessary space. This happens particularly either because the parent application crashed during runtime, or because the program's developer forgot to add the necessary code to delete TMP files when finished using them. TMP files tend to accumulate over time and take up a lot of disk space.

All this said, I have to add an important note: not all TMP files are safe to remove. So how do I know when a TMP file can be removed or not? Usually it is safe to assume that if a TMP file is several weeks or months old, you can delete. You can check the meta data to know when the file was created or last modified, by right clicking on the file and choosing Properties. For example when you are using a word processor and have the auto-save option enabled, the application will most probably create some form of temporary file to store the content of the document you're working on in some pre-defined location in your hard disk.

Other temp files as they are usually called, are created by the Windows and its default applications. One well known default application which creates hoards of temporary files is the Internet browser. Whenever you access a webpage, buy from an online shopping cart, access your email, your browser is transparently saving and caching some data pertaining to the action you've taken for various reasons. One of the reasons is for optimizing your web experience and loading the web-pages you visit the most frequently faster.

Temp files which are created by default Windows applications are usually stored in a few pre-defined locations in your hard drive mainly C:windowstemp folder. For these reasons there may be temp files, unbeknown to you, scattered in various locations all over your computer. The easiest way to remove temporary files created by Windows and its applications is to use the Disk Cleanup service.

What Are TMP Files and How Can I Delete Them?

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What is Split-Testing?

!±8± What is Split-Testing?

Pay per click advertisers often advocate split-testing. For those in the know, it's almost obvious. But for those who don't understand what it means, it's a little abstract. Here's an overview of what split-testing is all about.

So you have an ad that's up and running. To get to this point you had to find a product, do some keyword research, and write an ad that you think will not only generate clicks, but will also generate sales. That's great. If you're doing that, you're on the right track.

But you can do better. How? By split-testing.

When you have just one ad out there, it's difficult to tell what's working. That's where split-testing comes in. Split-testing simply means creating a very similar, but ever-so-slightly different ad. If your original ad mentions free shipping at the end of your last line, you might create a mirror ad (as your split test ad) that references the free shipping at the beginning of the last line of your ad.

Another example might be to write an ad without referencing the price of your product. Your second ad could include the price. From there you could track which ad receives a better response.

Great - that's split-testing. So what do you do from there? Run your ads for about 30 clicks each. That gives you enough of a sample to be able to tell what's working and what isn't. Drop the ad that's performing worse. While you keep running the better performing ad, create a new ad that builds on what you've just learned from your split test.

Repeat the entire process. In the long run, you will be continually improving your ads. This will lead to more clicks and more sales. Track everything that you do!

So that's it. Now you understand split-testing. Sure, there's more to learn, but now you are equipped with enough knowledge to get your split-testing program started. Good luck!

What is Split-Testing?

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Florida Private Mortgage Insurance

!±8± Florida Private Mortgage Insurance

When you only have the money to pay less than 20 percent down payment of your mortgage, chances are you will need a private mortgage insurance to help you secure a loan. What a private mortgage insurance or PMI does is it provides protection to the lender by guaranteeing payment in case of default from borrower. The borrower will in turn pay a monthly mortgage insurance fee. This way, a lending company will allow a lesser down payment than what they would normally accept.

Cost of PMI

The cost of PMI depends on how much down payment the borrower pays and for his credit file review. Also, the higher the amount of the down payment, the lower the insurance rate will ultimately be. For example, a 15 percent down payment is less than the cost of PMI on a 10 percent down payment. The PMI premium is then added to the monthly amortization.

Canceling PMI

Private mortgage insurance can be very hard on the pocket because the PMI companies can charge up to hundreds of dollars depending on your credit. It can catch you by surprise to see that your monthly amortization has jacked up by more than half by the time you are already signing the papers. In the event that you want to cancel your PMI, what are your options?

Even with the amount of equity on your home, the final decision of terminating the PMI is reserved by the lender and concerned investors. But in most cases, the lender allows cancellation of the PMI when 80 percent of the original property value has been paid for. Other lenders require that you pay PMI for one or two years before they concede to terminating it. If you wish to cancel your PMI, contact your lender. An appraisal will be conducted on your property to determine current value and you will have to pay for the cost of this appraisal. Another option for you is to refinance your home because that way, you can take a new mortgage on your home without PMI.

Florida Private Mortgage Insurance

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