The reason I didn't comment on Angel is because I am not familiar with that dog's problems. An in-home consultation with a behaviorist might be good to evaluate the situation and suggest ways to re-introduce the dogs to one another. I also think that once wolfie is dealt with, he will be more calm around the house and this problem with angel being annoyed by him might go away. If I had 31 acres, I would find some place to dig a hole. Then I'd wrap some food treats in a paper towel and bury it in the hole and backfill with dirt lightly. Then I would drop crumbs to leave an extra scent trail back to the house. I would then take your active dog and go outside with him on a leash and let him follow the scent back to buried treasure. Tracking and digging may not be as exciting to all breeds as it is for my dogs but it's a lot of fun for mine to track down the treasure and dig it up. It gives them an opportunity to uses their senses and their noggins and it's not that physically strenuous on me. I'd rather do that than a long walk. If I had as much land as you, I'd have some rather extensive trails and would set up lots buried treasures.

A "Starker exchange" was codified by the IRS. You may be looking to TIC exchange (Tenants in Common) governed by some fairly strict IRS regulations (although no SEC oversight as they are real estate investments not securities). You need to find a registered-rep to hook you up with a TIC Facilitator. This is the TICA website. Maybe you get in touch with them through the contact page and they can recommend a qualified intermediary (accommodator) or you can learn more about TIC exchanges? Hopefully the TICA association can direct you to someone in your general area and more information concerning your questions. If you decide to take the cash because you are wary, the tax rate is currently only 15%. Deferring tax on the gains by reinvesting may not be a wise move for you.

FF, Wow... talk about obfuscation! I would never "bait" anyone who clearly speaks with greater knowledge than mine within his area of expertise Really??? "Never"??? How do you define "never"? More problematic, in my opinion, is when he preaches, as he often does, his gospel of heavily leveraging your house mortgage as a way of getting money to make other financial investments. "Preaching"? "Gospel"? "Heavily"? A) How do you specifically define "heavily" B) Where (links) have I *EVER* encouraged anything LESS than balanced responsibility? We should all realize, I hope, that much of his own financial well-being depends in large part on persuading other people to do just that so one has to wonder whether he should be regarded as an unbiased source when he ventures into financial planning advice. That's defamatory, and precisely the low-road "baiting" that was referenced. The fact that he sincerely believes what he advocates (I'm quite sure that he does) doesn't alter anything. Facts aren't alterable, fortunately. I certainly don't know what that's supposed to mean (do you?) and what I was trying to find out (not very successfully, I'm afraid) is whether he does either. So you can acknowledge yoou don't yet understand the financials I just explained.... yet you are trying to discern if *I* understand what I am explaining (that you do not understand)? Are we all seeing the irony? I do appreciate that our exchange was off topic and I apologize for that. Actually, I think you've been ON topic... the topic being 'hearing that mortgage rates are going up," and whether there was any surprise that the OP had been told such things. It's easy to get suckered into these things and hard to stop when you're having fun. Right, Dave? We do love our fun together, don't we? Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

Button ton not but nut bout Badminton (in the spirit of the olympic)