Archive for March, 2009

This article was published in the Claims Prevention and Procedure Council newsletter, and in the October 1998 issue of Antique Prime Magazine & Journal.

Hiring an Appraiser

It may surprise you to learn that anyone can call themselves an appraiser. There is no licensing or certification for personal property appraisers at this point in time, so if you need an appraisal, it is your responsibility to determine if the appraiser is qualified.

There are two types of property: real property and personal property. Real property includes real estate, land, buildings. Tangible personal property includes moveable items, such as furniture, antiques, collectibles, pots and pans. This article deals strictly with appraisers of personal property.

What’s “it” worth? That all depends. Is the purpose of knowing the value for insurance (coverage or claim)? Liquidation, sale, or resale? Equitable division of property (divorce or distribution of an estate)? IRS obligation (probate and estate tax, or charitable contribution)? The “value” of an item may differ depending on the “function” of the appraisal and the “market” used to determine the value. A knowledgeable appraiser should be able to explain these differences to you.

Ask the appraisers you are considering hiring if they specialize in the types of items you want appraised. Just as you wouldn’t visit a podiatrist for a heart problem, don’t engage a coin appraiser to value an 18th Century chair. If you have a large number of various household goods, you might seek a generalist appraiser who will contact experts in certain fields, should the need arise.

Check the qualifications of the appraisers by asking if they have had any formal education in appraisal theory, principles, procedures, and ethics. Training is not yet required of any appraiser, but those who have taken classes and have passed the tests show that they are interested in their profession and in seeking competence. Those who are serious about appraising should be taking courses at least every five years to remain up to date.

Request references. The appraiser, however, has an obligation of confidentiality to all clients. Only after securing their written permission should the appraiser provide you with their names.

Confirm that the cost of the appraisal will be based on an hourly rate, a flat rate, or a per item rate, plus expenses, where appropriate. It is not ethical for appraisers to charge based on a percentage of value or on contingency.

Make sure that you will receive a typed or computer printed (not handwritten) and signed report that the appraiser will defend in court, if necessary. The report should consist of a cover letter with any limiting and qualifying conditions; the appraiser’s qualifications; a statement that the appraiser has no financial interest in the property; a complete and accurate description of the property; the methodology used; the market analysis and markets selected; and a defined value.

Inquire about the appraiser’s membership in any appraisal organizations. Active participation shows involvement with the profession, peer recognition, access to updated information, and requirement to adhere to a code of ethics.

Examine the appraiser’s responses to your questions and decide if the appraiser you are about to hire is qualified.

Sponsored by Charlotte Antique Appraiser – AAA Appraisal Co. Inc.

Free Reverse Cell Phone Lookup Websites – Do They Exist?

Is it really possible to run a free reverse cell phone lookup on the internet? Many of us have become disillusioned and frustrated in the past with websites which appear to offer free products or services online but in fact do not. Is this the case with cell phone lookups?

Firstly let us examine exactly what we mean by a phone number lookup. If you have in your possession a residential phone number but no idea who the number belongs to or what address it relates to you can use a “reverse lookup” service to find out those details. This can obviously be very useful in situations where you have lost contact with someone but still have a record of their phone number, or simply wish to verify who owns the number before mistakenly phoning the wrong number. There are many places you can perform such residential and business phone lookups online for free, including toll-free numbers.

However a problem arises when you need to run a reverse lookup on a cellular phone as the free directories do not contain any such numbers. Similarly they do not contain fax numbers as this information is only held by the carriers and telecommunications companies. Do these records exist, and are they free?

The good news is there are websites which claim to offer large numbers of cell phone numbers, but they are not free. These websites naturally have to pay for access to some of this information, and go to the considerable trouble of pulling all the various resources together in one place, and as a result you will be charged a small fee before you can access the lookup databases. However the fee is a one-off payment and with some websites you can run as many searches as you like once you have access, with others they offer a single lookup for a lower fee. The records they claim to offer include cell owner details, address history, carrier details, and the phone connection status. It is also worth noting that the databases offered by each company differ to some degree, but most include cell phones and often residential, business, toll-free, even pagers, and these websites say your searches are guaranteed legal and confidential.

In addition to reverse lookups there are also similar websites which offer access to information such as background checks and background reports, people finder databases, bankruptcies, liens, public records databases including births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions, sex offender records, police records, and much more. These sites operate in the same way, offering access to specific types of information for a set fee, however it should be noted that you will not receive access to such information as part of your cell phone lookup site membership.

I have seen websites claiming to offer free cell lookups, but they always lead eventually to the paid sites in the end, even allowing people to search for free and then charging to view the results. It is the sad truth that the only place where you are likely to find detailed reverse cell records is within the legitimate paid directories. In conclusion, the answer is no, free cell phone lookups do not currently exist. However if you really want to access such records then I believe paying a small fee is a price worth paying.

For more information including a list of popular reverse cell phone lookup sites visit Cell-Phone-Pages.com. Cell Phone Pages also contains hundreds of cell phone and telecommunications articles and resources covering all aspects of cell phone safety, security, accessories and shopping

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Down

If there is one thing that all of us expect out of our computers, its fast speed. Whenever we first brought our computer home from the store, more than likely, we were very happy with how fast it was running. It started up without a hitch or any error windows and any time we opened a program, it opened without hesitation. Slowly, however, over the course of several months, our computer has probably slowed down. Although there could be a number of different reasons why this can happen, there are three easy ways to speed up your computer and to get it back to the speed that it was when you first brought it home.

The first way that you can speed up your computer is by adding additional memory. One of the reasons why computers tend to be cheap whenever you purchase them at the store is because they skimp a little bit on the amount of memory that they install. They may use big numbers in order to try and impress you but the fact is, most computers are deficient in the amount of memory that they really need to run smoothly. Purchase a chip of memory and install it or have someone install it for you and you would be surprised at how much faster your computer becomes.

The second thing that you can do to speed up your computer is to have it cleaned of any spyware or viruses that may exist on it. Although many of these programs show themselves through pop-up windows or browser hijacking, many of them may run silently in the background. Whenever you have many different spyware programs, which often people do, they all run at the same time in it’s tends to grind your system to a halt. The easiest way to redeem this problem is to clean your system by means of an anti-spyware program. Not only will your computer run faster, you will be more secure whenever you are using it.

Finally, we have a very easy way to speed up your computer that is often overlooked by many individuals. This is by cleaning up errors that exists in the Windows registry. Although most people are not comfortable with tampering with this particular part of the computer, errors that compile inside the registry are often guilty of slowing down your system. Fortunately, you do not have to take care of this yourself. There are plenty of programs that can be downloaded and installed in order to scan your registry on a regular basis and keep it clean as a whistle. Not only will this help to speed up your computer, it will also get rid of those annoying pop ups, error messages and system crashes.

Although it may take a little bit of work on your part, these three easy ways to speed up your computer can make it better than new.