Hello , I live in Brattleboro, VT. Right now I am dealing with a slum lord who made an advance to me and I refused right away. Since that incident live in my apartment is a night mare. I live with mold , roaches and pealing paint on the out side of the building. He has raised my rent from 575.00 to 675.00 in the last 2 yrs, He has tried to evict me on a no cause eviction. He has entered my home when I am not home and shows up with out notice. There is mold in the structure of the building . ( black mold ) there is mold in my bathroom too. you can smell it from the street. There is a dumpster in front of the building that is always filled up from him. No he doesn't live in the building, He has a dome shaped home in west Dummerston , VT. There are rodents crawling in the walls chewing the wire's. The stairs that lead to my neighbors apartment is slipping down the hill. they sit right in front of her doorway. just 2days ago July 4, 2008 She fell down the dtais and rolled down the hill which is filled with dirt and rocks. She is 60yrs old ! all this happened right in front of me. The landlords girl friends mother was watching and never bothered to ask if she was ok. She did tell the landlord . He never asked if she was ok either. I wanted to call the fire dept. but she said no because she has no insurance, I was horrified by the whole thing, Most of the tenants here are 60 and older. If they ask him to fix something he threatens to raise the rent on them. If I dis agree with him he threatens eviction, this man is a bully. He knows that I am a female Living alone. I have called the health office and they have come out here to inspect. When I called them back they told me that the place is in no violation, I had hand the officer an envelope filled with cock roaches he said the he didnt see them walking around, I asked about the mold he said that his offices doesn't have much pull. He also said that he did not see any mold. You can see it as plane as day. There are wholes in my walls from the landlord. He said he was going to fix them , This was last year ,they are still there. I have filed a complaint with human rights. I really need a lawyer to bring him to court. I cant afford one, I am on a fixed income and he knows this. So talk about slum lords , I feel I beat the rest !!!! I want out so bad !!!! I just cant come up with the security, . One more thing .When I was in the hospital the land lord changed the locks on my door and shut off my electric, my 17 teen yr old daughter was not able to get in. so she called him and he refused to come an open the door. She had to call the police to make him open the door. It was 17 degrees outside. I was a mess knowing her key would not fit the door. I wanted to go home. I couldn't. Thanks for lisening it feels better when I talk about this, Debra Renouf

1. The commission how much is to much? Commissions usually are 5 to 7% - depending on where you are. What I've always looked for when trying to find an agent is one that splits the commission in 1/2, or in addition will lower the commission for an "in house" sale, when one of their agents bring the buyer. 8. What is required of the realtor? Should my realtor be an agent only for the seller? In other words not a dual agent for both buyer and seller? She became a dual agent in the middle of the deal and I signed accepting that. Should I have objected? I didn't know what to do when that happened. *I am not a fan of dual agency, and I say this though I allowed it on my last sale - and my agent is my best friend! You had the right to say no. Had you said no, they could have found the buyer their own agent within the firm or else where. You have to figure out what is right for you. Things to think of - in this market with nothing selling in most places, you have to ask yourself if you think your agent will "take sides" just to get a sale. When we sold in May, the buyer had their own agent that was a grandfather to one of the buyers, he was also retired & not acting in his MLS area. When the inspection came, we were sitting & waiting. Our agent said, well, that's good, they know they get 7 days to list demands and haven't. We didn't feel right, we knew the other agent probably didn't know this, so after the time limit our agent called them, of course they had no clue & immediately faxed the demands. I always held firm we had no intention of repairing, nor crediting unless something was safety related & we fixed the flu.. There was another issue we were going to attempt to get estimates for but not fix. At some point our agent appeared to change sides, us getting estimates was then us fixing it. We ended up hiring someone, gave them a deposit and made a deal that we would pay for it but the buyer would have it done after moving in; our agent knew this but when push came to shove in the end he said he had no clue why we'd give a deposit. He then wanted us to eat the deposit ($300) and pay them the full amount at closing.. I told him to eat it out of his commission, he laughed. Had he been a dual agent, I don't think we'd have closed because we would have told everyone to stick it. We were so stressed, feeling that the agent wasn't looking out for our interests but theirs. I actually don't know how I'd do it when the time comes to sell this house. 9. Should I have it put in the new contract that she can not be a dual agent? Isn't that a conflict of interest? *not if they act in both their client's best interest. It does limit how far they can 'push' for you though. IMO, it's best for each to have their own agent. Joyce, I have a few posts that might be of interest to you - Agent Interview Questions for sellers if you decide to look for another agent Sellers, what are you doing to prep? - if you have time to read through it, you might get some ideas on dressing up the house a little. Things like grass seed, a few plants, even changing light switches and lighting help. Do you feel the house is priced right? When was the last time the agent did a market analysis?

chisue, it depends on a lot of different factors. In Chicago it might take you forever. In a sunny CA city you could reach breakeven in less than 10 yrs. We don't have air conditioning and use gas for heat, so our 14-panel rooftop system eliminates just about all electricity costs as long as it's not raining or heavy overcast. In the SF Bay Area/NorCA, figure April thru end of October. Minimum charge from PG&E (one of the highest cost utilties in the country, we're so [NOT] grateful) is $5, but will be going to $10/mo under new rate structure just approved by our gutless wonder, the state PUC. Electricity is very expensive in CA. There is currently a 4-tier price system; recently challenged in court it was dumped and will now be a 2-tier system. Those who used or wasted the most electricity will see a drop in their bills; most including those who tried to conserve, will see a rise in rates. We never made extreme efforts to conserve electricity but we are retirees and the TV/broadband/computers are running most of the 24-hr day, 7 days a week (unless we're traveling). We were on the lower end of the 4th highest-priced tier even w/o air conditioning or an electric car. Once you put in solar all of the 3 CA utilities only bill once a year for electricity. They keep a running tab so you know how it changes month-to-month. You are billed and pay for gas usage monthly, as before. We have no regrets buying the system. We are getting the 20-yr warranty (the standard install comes with a 10-yr) and it will be transferable to a new homeowner. There is huge interest in solar in our area, but few homeowners have put it in. RE agents have told us it's definitely a plus for resale. >>>The spiel they spin is that rates will be going up, and by installing solar, your rates will be locked in. Who knows?>> Okay, here's WHAT EVERY CALIFORNIA SOLAR SYSTEM OWNER SHOULD KNOW: There is no question about "Who knows?" Although most of the media flubbed the 2015 coverage badly, the big issue before the PUC, which took over a year to settle, was NOT just the rates the utilities are charging customers. It was also the fact that solar customers have a special rate to begin with, under the program called "Net Energy Metering" or NEM. This program is also known by its old name, "Net Zero Monitoring". This is how residential & commercial private solar installs are allowed to use their solar generation production for credit on their bills. NEM was the states' part in the push by the federal government to encourage solar system installations. CA was one of those states; as was Hawaii and a few others. The NEM credit given to solar customers was deliberately generous. In wiping out most of a user's bill for a good part of the year, it also means that customer isn't paying to help maintain the power stations and grid, without which there is no power delivery to anyone. It's the same problem that has arisen with electric cars: by bypassing the gas stations and the gas taxes, they are using and wearing out streets and highways, but not paying to maintain the infrastructure they use alongside non-hybrids/non-electrics. Sooooo......the California PUC's decision was: - NEM is being phased out. There was always a numeric cap to the # of installs. At last count - you can check your own utility's cap on-line, it shows up in a Google search - PG&E will probably reach its max NEM cap sometime in mid-2016 or earlier, depending on # of solar installs. - The other two CA utilities are not quite as close to their cap #s as PG&E, but they are seeing a steady stream of installations. Figure 2017 or 2018 at the very latest. - After the NEM cap is reached, each utility will no longer offer the generous NEM credit to a user's electricity bill. Usage will be assessed and charged, or debited, at current approved rates. Now for the critical part for those who already have solar systems installed: NEM users will have a 20-yr maximum transition period. After that, the NEM rate ends for that user and you go to market rates. I wrote a post in the Renewable Energy forum about this, so you may want to go read that: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3133178/solar-investment-tax-credit-remember-expiry-date-is-12-31-2016?n=1

I thought I'd chime in with an update: Here in Colorado we have had a LOT of BIG hail. Roofing claims are off the charts! *-My insurance deductible AND depreciation were deducted from the total damage estimate. *-They cut me a check....for about a third of what the total damages came to. I think their estimate was low. *-I then scheduled a NEW roof. *- Will take photos of the roof just before they're done, with the roofing estimate paperwork...send that in to the Insurance company and they will reimburse me the depreciation. If I don't repair the huge double redwood deck(needs sanded & stained), cedar fence/dents or gutters/dents, I will have enough to pay for the roof. So in essence....YES....I'm getting a new roof free and clear from the insurance company....but I'm using the money alotted for the deck, fence & gutters repair to do that. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Everything went as the OP said....except....there were other damages that were paid out, but only had enough to pay for the roof.