Stress Free Move

Good neighborhood services can be hard to locate, especially if you don’t know anyone in the area who can refer you. Enter a service like Angie’s List, which offers reviews from people who have actually used a service in your area. This is especially good for large cities.

Let’s say you’ve just moved across the state or even the country. How will you find a doctor? What about a veterinarian?

Angie’s List collects reviews, then offers them to individuals like you to help them find the best (and warn about the worst) providers in your area.

The Iowa farm and cornfield that was the setting for Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams is up for sale.

Don and Becky Lansing, the owners of the site near Dyersville where the field was built by Universal Studios, said Thursday they’re selling the property. The asking price is $5.4 million.

The couple said they love the land, which has been in Don Lansing’s family for more than a century, but they’re ready to retire and give up the property.

“It’s really time for us to head to the locker room. Maybe that sounds corny. I don’t care,” Becky Lansing told The Associated Press. “We really would just love to become spectators. We want to sit in the bleachers. We want to look forward to all that the ‘Field of Dreams’ will become in the future.”

The baseball diamond is in the middle of a cornfield in eastern Iowa. The movie, released in 1989 with Costner as its star, was based on the book “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella.

The site has been a popular tourist destination, with the family maintaining the baseball diamond built by Universal. The Lansings purchased the left field and center portions from neighbor Rita Ameskamp in 2007, ending a long-standing split over the commercialization of the site.

Up for sale is the diamond, a two-bedroom house, six outbuildings that include a concession stand, and a 193-acre parcel. The land includes the mystical cornfield where the ghosts of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, “Moonlight” Graham and others emerge to play ball.

It can be hard to find a place to rent if you have pets. Not everyone wants to run the risk of having dogs chew the baseboards or cats pee in the basement. But many landlords understand that pets are a part of the family. Here is a pet-friendly house for rent in Coconut Grove, Florida.

If you are apartment hunting, moving to an unfamiliar area, you’ll want to know the crime rates. This interactive mapping tool can help you decide the areas you are willing to move to.

Lots of violent crime? You know not to move there if you are a single woman or someone who comes home late at night. Car theft and break-ins? You’ll be able to budget for higher insurance rates.

CrimeReports.com allows you to key in a zip code and see the crimes committed in a specific area over a period of time.

If you’re looking for an apartment, furnished, for rent in any state, try this resource.

Sublets are often furnished apartments for short or long-term rental. People travel or move for work, and put up their apartment - furnished - for rent.

Here is an example, from Mississippi:

Our gated community offers stately one, two and three bedroom apartments with fully equipped kitchens, full-size washer an dryers, bay windows in select units, and outside storage. Enjoy our swimming pool with waterfall, tanning bed, executive business center, fitness center, and more!

From Craigslist

The unit features:
~ Hardwood floors
~ Large, open, roommate style floor plan
~ Sunroom
~ Double sided fireplace
~ Berber carpet in bedrooms
~ Spacious balcony
~ Beautiful wooded view
~ Secure gated community
~ Pool and gym on-site
~ Incredible location

Click for more info and photographs.

From Craigslist

A beautiful 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath Avery Ranch Garden Home and a former Meritage Model Home with thousands of upgrades. Seperate study or fourth bedroom with handscraped hard wood floors. Soaring ceilings in family room, handscrapted hard wood floors in kitchen, master, dining, and family room, gorgeous upgraded bath and more.

Outdoor fireplace with seating and private wrought iron entry fence make this very special.

For more information or to schedule a showing please contact trent at 512-804-6436

Thank you,

Trent

Click for pictures!

Over the years we’ve all collected a fair amount of CDs and vinyl. This stuff can be heavy to move from place to place. Maybe you started buying records when you got your first paper route, and have been collecting music ever since. Think of how many pounds you’ll be carrying around if you don’t streamline your collection!

Also, if you are a vinyl collector, you have to consider that safe moving and storage of records is a lot different from that of CDs. There’s temperature to consider. Flat, hard boxes to make sure records don’t warp. They must remain dust-free for fear of scratches.

With a small investment (no more than a few cables from Best Buy), you can convert your old vinyl to MP3.

Of course CDs are a lot easier, because you can just rip them direct to your computer.

Consider taking the time to do this before you move or place your furniture in storage. It will make your move so much faster and a lot lighter.

It will also ensure your music is available at the click of a mouse.

A friend of mine pulled a cross-country move this weekend, by car. Naturally she prepared a playlist to suit the occasion. This is something I usually do, too. Here are a few tunes that you’ll want to include on any moving-related playlist:

* On The Road Again ~ Willie Nelson
* Leavin’ on a Jet Plane ~ Chantal Kreviazuk
* Ready to Run ~ Dixie Chicks
* America ~ Simon & Garfunkle

Sometimes your travels take you back to where you began. A homecoming requires a special kind of moving mix. Think about these great tunes to keep you company on your travels:

* Homeward Bound ~ Simon & Garfunkle
* Green Green Grass of Home ~ Tom Jones
* The Bitch is Back ~ Elton John
* Mama I’m Coming Home ~ Ozzy Osbourne
* Country Roads (Take Me Home) ~ John Denver

Personally, I like to pack to Prince. It wasn’t a conscious decision - it just kind of occurred to me that my last two or three moves had all been done to Prince. So I kept it up as tradition. Of course, now when friends stop by and hear that I have Prince on, they immediately suspect I’m getting ready to move again. Not always the case, since he’s also my official “dying my hair” music, too!

Foreclosure auctions are a great place to find cheap real estate, but you have to do your research. Chances are that the owner who was unfortunate enough to let the house go in the first place ran out of money/inclination to do upkeep. That means everything from lawn care to roof and furnace repair. You may be investing in a dump that needs thousands - or tens of thousands - of dollars worth of repair.

Despite that, if you do some research, you can still get a great bargain.

1. Know the area you’re seeking to invest in. Is it up and coming, or on its way out?

2. Do as much as you can to find out about the state of the property you’re bidding on. A foreclosed property isn’t always the same as a regular sale; you can’t always go tromping through with your agent and an inspector. The lender just wants to unload the property, as is.

3. Be realistic. Don’t blow your entire budget thinking you’re getting a great deal on a great house, only to find you have $25,000 worth of repairs to do, and it’s going to take a year before anyone can move in. This is especially important for those who are new to the real estate game. Though you can generally pick up a house for 50-60% of its market value, there will be factors like repair costs and time to be considered.