To Buy or Rent For Your College Student – Mortgage
To Buy or Rent For Your College Student
Dan The Roommate Man
September always means Back To School, and for thousands of families it also signals Off To College. In addition, more and more young people are opting to continue their education with post-graduate studies.
Once a student is past the Mandatory - Freshman - Year - In - The - Dorm Policy that many colleges have, parents face an interesting dilemma: should they continue to shell out rent, or considering buying a property for their children to occupy while attending school
Here is a TRUE Story.
In 1994, A young man decided to attend North Carolina State University. He enrolled in a combination Master/Ph.D. program. This meant he would be in Raleigh, NC for the next four -six years. After investigating the rental options in the area, his parents decided to help him purchase a townhouse.
This was the deal. A 3 bedroom, 2
How to Buy a Digital Camera – Digital Cameras
How to Buy a Digital Camera
Gary Hendricks
Are buying your first digital camera Well, you must be confused by the bewildering range of models out there. How do you know which model will suit your needs To make things worse, digital cameras do not come cheap. Choosing a bad camera will easily cost you a few hundred dollars.
In fact, buying a digital camera need not be a difficult task. Ill highlight the key considerations you need to think through before making that purchase decision. Always, always remember to consider these factors when buying a digital camera:
Battery Life
Number of Megapixels
Zoom Lens
Exposure Control
User Controls
Battery Life
This has got to be one of the most overlooked features in digital cameras. I know many people who go for the latest and greatest digital cameras which are short in the battery life department. If you want to take good photos, your camera needs to powered for extended periods of time. Ive found that cost and battery life dont go together - many cheap cameras have good battery life, while some high-end models drain your battery really fast. Make sure you choose a camera that has good battery life.
Number of Megapixels
The megapixel rating of a digital camera determines how much fine detail you can capture in your shots. Typically, the number of megapixels can range around from 2 megapixels to 8 megapixels. How do you decide how many megapixels you need As a rule of thumb, if youre only interested in taking small snapshots to send via email or for posting on the Web, you wont need more than 2-megapixels. If you want large print outs of your gorgeous photographs, then youll probably want to get 5-megapixel cameras and above.
Zoom Lens
Youll definitely want a camera with decent optical zoom. Now the keyword here is optical zoom as opposed to digital zoom. Optical zoom physically moves the camera lenses to zoom in on a subject. Digital zoom, however, digitally averages and magnifies the image within the cameras microchip - resulting in poor picture quality. Many manufacturers advertisements talk about digital zoom instead of optical zoom - so do be careful when choosing. Id recommend getting at least 3x optical zoom in any camera you buy.
Exposure Control
The ability to control exposure settings such as shutter speed and lens opening is critical to professional photographers. Cheaper digital cameras only allow you to shoot photos in automatic mode - just press the shutter release and voila, your picture is taken. More advanced users prefer to tweak the shutter speed and aperture to capture fast moving objects or blur the image background. Choose a camera with good exposure control if you foresee yourself taking on photography as a serious hobby.
User Controls
If you are getting a point-and-shoot camera, make sure you find one thats easy to use. User controls to set resolution, macro mode, flash and exposure should be within easy reach. Of course, if youre a serious photography buff who wants to take the time to tweak all sorts of manual settings, then this many not be so critical. I prefer to try out the camera first in the store - play with the controls and get comfortable with them. Only then will you know whether its comfortable enough for you.
Conclusion
Well, I do hope this article has helped you understand what factors to consider when buying a digital camera. A general piece of advice I can give is - if youre a total newbie, dont go for the latest digital SLR. It may be tempting to get that Nikon D70 right from the start, but Id reckon its much better to start off with a cheaper camera first. Learn, experiment and build up your digital photography skills. Once youre more skilled, then proceed to upgrade to a better camera. Good luck and happy shopping!
About The Author
Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on digital photography. Visit his website at http://www.basic-digital-photography.com for tips and tricks on buying digital cameras, as well as shooting great photos.
gary_hendricks@basic-digital-photography.com
Should You Buy a House or a Condo – Home
Should You Buy a House or a Condo
John Carle & Sharon Gregresh
A big debate these days is whether or not to buy a house, or buy a condo. Most of this debate comes from a lack of understanding about condos, and what they are. Hopefully, the following information will prove to be helpful.
When Buying a condo, are you a tenant
No. That simply isnt true. When you buy a condo, you are buying a part of the corporation, and are thus an equal owner. It is true that you can be forced to move, if you are really disturbing the other owners, or causing problems. But this is true of residential homes as well. If your neighbors complain repeatedly about smell, health concerns, or criminal behavior, then you may be forced to move. The same holds true in condos and houses alike.
The board can force you to pay thousands of dollars arbitrarily, and without notice.
At first glance, this may appear to be true. But keep in mind that the condo association is made up of owners who have the same goal as you