Archive of Tricks & Places


John M Peckham III


Jack Peckham ( ) is the Executive Director of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society, based in Boston, MA.

TRICK#1: Solve Your Tech Problems The Easy Way
TRICK#2: Get College Funds For Junior
GREAT PLACE #1: Worldwide Real Estate Research Center
GREAT PLACE #2: You Should Be On This List

TRICK#1: Solve Your Tech Problems The Easy Way

Here's a trick the tech support folks won't tell you about. There is an incredibly effective way to quickly come up with the solution to most computer problems. Next to rebooting (which will generally solve 80% of your problems) this simple solution works almost without fail.

Next time you get an error message, rather than sit on hold for an hour, simply type the error message into your favorite search engine (Google, for example). The odds are that your problem has been discussed before and your search will bring up the solution in a nanosecond -- rather that an hour or so.

And here's the biggest secret -- the last time you confronted tech support with a tough problem -- they probably did the same thing.

TRICK#2: Get College Funds For Junior
http://finaid.org/
The time is coming near to start scraping together a few shekels to get your pride and joy through college. The trick is -- where does the money come from? Kiplinger Personal finance Magazine called this resource "The mother lode for scholars"

This public service, award-winning site has grown into "the most comprehensive annotated collection of information about student financial aid on the web."

In addition to tons of valuable information, there are links to the major scholarship and student loan search programs. "It's comprehensive, it's informative, it's objective--and it's the first stop on the Web for students looking for ways to finance their education".

And there is no cost to access this magical place.

How about information on worldwide publicly traded real estate companies? Worldwide real estate news today by country? This independent (nothing to sell you) research resource maintains a database of close to 15,000.real estate specific research reports searchable by country and keyword.

For example: Type "condominium conversion" into the search box and -- shazam! - the following records appear: Association (1), Strategic Views (2)., Who's Who Profiles (5), Publicly Traded Company (1) and Research Reports (7).

Neat targeted real estate research resource. And the price is right - for you its complimentary unlimited access. That's on the house.

GREAT PLACE #2: You Should Be On This List
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/54/Worth_1.html
Better check this one out, who knows you may be on the list of the "400 Richest Americans". We weren't too surprised to discover that a big bunch of them made it to the list by investing in real estate.

This intriguing place allows you to sort by name, rank, age, residence, net worth and the source of their wealth. Want to see what your favorite billionaire looks like? Each listing has a photo plus a quick story telling how each arrived in this lofty perch (even if by inheritance).

Maybe next year.

Real Estate CyberTips are provided with compliments of the Real Estate Cyberspace Society.