Your Picture Here When you dip your paintbrush, you usually wipe the excess against the side of the can. Be-fore you know it, paint is dripping down the side of the can. The little groove around the rim gets so full of paint that it splatters everywhere when you hammer the lid back on. Avoiding the mess is easy. Just wrap one or two rubber bands around the can from top to

bottom, going across the middle of the can open-ing. When you fill your paint brush, just tap it against the rubber bands and the excess paint will fall back into the can, according to the Readers' Digest book, Extraordinary Uses For Ordinary Things.

Avoiding messy paint cans

Good idea! Inspect your home before you list

M ost homeowners do well at mak-ing the house look nice by paint-

ing, cutting the grass and fixing any-thing that breaks. But, a home that is ready for sale has to have more than just a pretty face. Before you list, consider spending a couple of hundred dollars to have your home inspected by a professional. He can spot conditions that cost little to repair now but could put off prospective buyers. Angie Hicks (Angie's List) says peo-ple are too busy with their lives to deal with prevention. Her recommended in-spectors report that, typically, they find one or more conditions that the home-owner didn't know about. Inspectors often see do-it-yourself or handyman repairs that were done im-properly and are unsafe. Electrical and plumbing work are two of the most common building code violations. Heating and air conditioning systems are examined and recommendations made. Homes of all ages benefit from exterior maintenance to keep moisture

from creating issues and concerns. People who don't have the time or inclination to crawl about the attic, base-

ment or crawlspace should know that these are some of the hundred or more large and small areas a home inspector examines. Inspectors frequently un-cover problems completely unknown to the homeowner. One inspector noted that a bathroom exhaust system was sending so much moisture into the attic that the 2x4s above it were rotting away. He recommended that a roof vent be installed in the area. That solved the problem. Another inspector discov-ered that because of a slow plumbing leak, the frame supporting a toilet had almost disintegrated. The whole toilet (and anyone on it) could fall into the crawlspace at any time. Fixing the big problems be-fore you list can make your home much more attractive to a buyer. Visit the American Society of Home Inspectors (ashi.org) to find

an inspector in your area.

Brad MacLay * 480-786-5600

I found someone who would love to buy my house and for nearly what I was asking, but they don't qualify for a conven-tional mortgage. Should I give them a mortgage using my own money? It's a leap of faith, of course, but sometimes seller financing is the one way to go. It has risks for both the buyer and seller, according to real estate attorneys. If the home is paid off, you won't have to deal with your own mortgage company. If not, check your mortgage to see if it has a "due on sale clause," meaning the lender can call the loan if the home is transferred. Some banks make exceptions. Seller financing was popu-lar in the 1980s when mortgage rates reached 18 percent. Now it's making a comeback in mar-kets that have been hit hard by foreclosures and where lending standards and years of eco-nomic distress have drained the pool of credit-worthy buyers. About 52,990 U.S. homes were purchased with owner financing in 2010, up 56 per-cent from 2008, according to Realtors Property Resource.

Michigan had the most of such sales, followed by Florida, Ohio, California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, according to property website Truila. Most owner-financed mortgages are for five or seven years, at which time a balloon payment is due to retire the mortgage. This gives the buyer time to repair his or her credit rating, which was usually damaged by a foreclosure or a short sale. Some buyers are self-employed and can't show enough profit to qualify for a conven-

tional mortgage. Now, investors see seller financing as a mar-keting tool. For buyers who can put 20 percent down and pay a higher interest rate for a seven-year period, the investor makes a profit. One recent owner-financed mortgage on a $107,000 home included a $25,000 down pay-ment and 7 percent interest.

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The tax man cometh Across 1. Holiday mo. 4. Grave marker 9. Formal vote 10. Coil 11. Antiquity, in antiquity 12. Poets' feet 13. Mrs. Butterworth's and maple 15. Peruvian terrorist group in the 60s, for short 16. Host 18. Part of 'to be' 20. Robin's partner 23. Gain knowledge 25. U.N. workers' grp. 26. TV, radio, etc. 27. Mary's boss on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" 28. Cheers 29. Dusk, to Donne Down 1. Salon supplies 2. Hard to grasp 3. Close-knit group 4. Suez, for one 5. Afternoon service 6. "A Nightmare on __

Street" 7. Ad __ 8. Branch angle 14. Central Italian region 17. "South Pacific" hero 18. Charity 19. Docile 21. Balm ingredient 22. It may be proper 24. Big fuss The title is a clue to the word in the shaded diagonal.

Need to sell, rent or buy a property? Need a property manager? Call Brad!

Brad MacLay * bmaclay@gmail.com * 480-786-5600 *

As evening falls on channels of the Platte River, half a million sandhill cranes begin to settle down for the night. Gradu-ally, they almost stop their trumpeting calls. All is well unless a threatening eagle or coyote makes an appearance. Then all 500,000 of the big birds rise in unison. The sound is deafening. The cranes weigh 9 to 10 pounds and have a loud call that can be heard from far away. Their wingspan is 5.4 feet to 6.9 feet, which makes them skilled soar-ing birds similar to hawks and eagles. They can stay aloft for hours with only an occasional flapping of their wings. Fossils show the cranes have been visiting this area for more than 2.5 million years. People living on the Central Platte River in Nebraska say the sandhill crane arrival

signifies spring. The skies are crisscrossed with formations of flying cranes, along with the ducks, geese and other species of

birds that fly along with them. Sometimes the sky is almost darkened with their num-bers. If you've never seen this phenome-non, you're missing out on one of the

greatest wildlife events in the world. Thousands of bird watchers and nature enthusiasts from all over the world come to

view the spectacle each year. During the day, they drive along country roads to watch the cranes feeding and building fat reserves for the rest of their migration to Canada and Siberia, and visitors see their mating dances with the elaborate hopping and deep bobbing of heads. Already mated cranes engage in unison calling. They stand close to each other, calling in a complex duet. In each series, the female calls twice and the male calls once.

Some visitors watch from a Rowe Sanc-tuary blind. Others use viewing decks and bridges in the area.

National and international viewers drawn to the spectacle

Meanings of Native American state names

Source: Smithsonian Institution - Alabama: Choctaw, first noted by the DeSoto expedition. - Arizona: Aztec word meaning "silver-bearing." - Connecticut: Mohican and Algonquian for "long river place." - Illinois: Algonquian for "men" or "warriors." - Iowa: meaning "here I rest" or "beautiful land." - Kansas: Sioux word for "south wind people." - Kentucky: Meaning "bloody land" or "meadowland." - Michigan: Chippewa for mici gama, meaning "great water." - Minnesota: Dakota for "sky-tinted water," the Minnesota River. - Mississippi: Chippewa and Algonquian mici zibi meaning "great river." Messipi in Algonquian. - Missouri: Algonquian meaning "river of the big canoes." - Nebraska: Omaha and Oto word meaning "broad water," or the Platte River. - Ohio: Iroquois word for "great river."

International Festival of the Owls March 2. Houston, Texas

Thinking of getting your Real Estate License? Call Brad!

Disclaimers: All real estate information deemed reliable but not guaranteed and should be independently verified. All properties are subject to prior sale, change, or withdrawal. Neither listing broker(s) nor this company shall be responsible for typographical errors, misinformation, misprints and shall be held totally harmless. If your property is currently listed with another real estate broker, this is not a solicitation of that listing.

EQUAL HOUSING

OPPORTUNITY

BRAD MACLAY, MBA, CRS

CERTIFIED DISTRESSED PROPERTY EXPERT