Manufactured home dealers are worried, as FEMA is auctioning off thousands of trailers remaining from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The dealers’ concerns are that their customers will choose to purchase the FEMA trailers at “fire-sale prices,” which could cause harm to the manufactured home market and pricing structure.

“People think they’re just going to get to buy them for nothing,” said Gale Crews, owner of Diamond State Mobile Home Sales in Hope, Arkansas. About 20,000 FEMA trailers are being stored at the city’s airport.

The trailers are expected to sell for less than half of the cost of a new manufacture home, perhaps as low as $25,000 to $40,000.

The trailers will be auctioned through a government Web site. There were 47 trailers for sale on Wednesday evening. Bids have ranged from $5,191 for a 2006 Coachmen Spirit of America trailer with possible water damage and a missing stove grate, battery and other items, to $12,600 for a 2006 Sunnybrook RV Sunset Creek trailer with “no obvious exterior damage.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchased 145,000 trailers in a panic just before and after Katrina’s devastation. The government agency spent approximately $2.7 billion, most of which went to these no-bid contracts.

It is estimated that the sell of these vacant homes (the total number stored across the U.S. reaching as many as 60,000), has only netted about 40 cents on every taxpayer’s dollar.

Legislation was passed by Congress in October, which has kept FEMA from selling these unused trailers directly to the public. The legislation came from strong urging of the manufactured home industry. So, FEMA must first attempt to donate the homes to federal, state and local agencies and public service groups.

Yet, even after such attempts, the number of homes that the agency will eventually be able to sell has manufactured home distributors extremely concerned. The potential of sells through FEMA will equal approximately 30 percent of the recreational vehicle industry’s U.S. sales in 2006.

“As you can imagine, a public auction of so many vehicles could devastate the market for travel trailers,” Michael Molino, president of the 2,700-member Recreational Vehicle Dealers Association, state in a letter sent Friday to FEMA Director R. David Paulison.

The General Services Administration is working in conjunction with FEMA, selling the auction trailers in groups of 300, hoping to alleviate the feared impact on the manufactured home market.

More than 64,000 FEMA trailers are still being used by Hurricane Katrina victims.

Sources used for this article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17509045/

http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/550903.html

June 29 (Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett ’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will find opportunities to invest its $25.6 billion in cash as insurance units lead a return to profitability, KBW Inc.

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The nice gentleman at Staples led me to the wireless routers, handed me the white box and told me “This is all you will need”. Having looked up prices online, and knowing that the prices for wireless routers ranged from $30 up to over $200 I was a bit skeptical on accepting this package from the customer sales rep. “Is this the cheapest one you have?” I asked, hoping he’d take the hint I couldn’t afford much.

“Honestly, no. We do have one that is $39.99, but this one is only $45 and it’s worth the extra $5.” Again, he repeated that this was everything I would need, so I was a bit taken aback that a sales person had chosen this wireless router to recommend and not one of the more expensive ones. So, I bought it and took it home.

Now hooking the NetGear G Wireless Router up to my desktop was much easier than I had thought it would be. The installation disc checks your current internet connection and then provides simple, easy to follow instructions for connecting everything. I was using a DSL modem, and was given step by step instructions for connecting the cables.

I did however find a problem with the laptop computer afterwards. The desktop was working just fine, and the laptop was finally reading a wireless signal but it would not connect to it. After an hour of trying to solve the problem myself, I finally caved and called the 1-800 number to have technical support help me. The receipt sat next to the box, ready to go back if this did not work.

The technical support assistant knew much more than I did, and was able to help me reconfigure everything that needed to be done and in no time I was able to connect to the wireless signal using the laptop. Now, the most important thing about this router would be how strong the signal is.

To paint you a picture, I live in a single wide mobile home. It’s certainly not large, although I don’t have exact measurements. The wireless router, and the desktop computer, are in a small office at the beginning of the hallway. Right next to the office is a kitchen and on the other side of that is the living room. The lap top can not connect in the living room.

According to the tech support agent, this is because there is a microwave and a cordless phone… both of which can cause interferance. So, my next example is my bedroom. Directly across the hall, which only one person can fit through at a time, is my bedroom. Again, the lap top can not connect in my bedroom. Now I do not have a Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter, which is supposed to increase signal strength and distance. With the NetGear Wireless Router, coverage is extended to 100 feet if you are using the adapter.

Without the adapter, the lap top does connect with a ‘good’ signal (3 out of 4 bars) if it is sitting on the filing cabinet in the closet sized office… less than 2 feet away from the router.

The verdict? Well, this has covered everything I need because I just needed to access the internet with the lap top computer, and I can. I won’t even invest any money into the Wireless USB adaptor, because I am fine with not being able to use the lap top in any room but the office. However, it is important for anyone else considering the NetGear wireless router to be aware that if I have this problem in my tiny little trailer… you may want to consider another router or at least adding the adaptor if you need more mobility in your home.

June 29 (Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett ’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will find opportunities to invest its $25.6 billion in cash as insurance units lead a return to profitability, KBW Inc. said as it began coverage of the stock with an “outperform …

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Imagine sitting on a deck at sunset overlooking the ocean, with a cool breeze flowing by while you sip a cool tropical drink and listen to soft music. A perfect ending to a perfect day full of adventure and activities. That is what awaits you when you visit Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and the kind of lifestyle you can have if you should decide to make Myrtle Beach your new home.

There are sixty miles of beaches in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina plenty of room to stretch out on the sand and relax between swims, but there are many more things to see and do in Myrtle Beach, enough going on to keep even the most active youngsters busy all day long.

You can visit Myrtle Waves, the largest water park in South Carolina, get up close and personal with sea life at Ripley’s Aquarium. You might even get a chance to sleep with sharks.
Come to Family Kingdom and ride the roller coaster and more than 30 other rides. There are three golf courses in Myrtle Beach and more than 100 in the surrounding area. And many of the hotels and bed and breakfasts in the area have special golf packages available.

There is mor to do on the water than just swimming in it, a lot more Come to places like Ocean Watersports, Second Avenue Pier, Capt. Dick’s Deep Sea Fishing & Water Sports
Captain Smiley’s Inshore Fishing Charters, Great American Riverboat Co. for boating, fishing, surfing, kayaking, scuba diving, parasailing, or windsurfing If your catch is big enough, enter it in the Grand Strand Fishing Rodeo and you might just win yourself a prize.

After you spend some time in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina you just might think about moving here. And if you think that this is an option for you, take a look at some of what is available today. If these seem to be interesting, it is a good reason to go for that Myrtle Beach vacation just to check out the scene.

There are many homes in Myrtle Beach that are suitable for a second or vacation home. Houses like this would fill that bill perfectly.
Mobile home are one choice, but many times when you purchase a mobile home, you do not own the land it is on and you have to pay a monthly rent for the land alone. This is one example
A three bedroom mobile home, without the land starts at about $33,000
A three bedroom cabin style home for $100,000
A three bedroom bungalow style house for $150,000
A three bedroom two story home for $160,000
Large three bedroom two story house for $300,000
A three bedroom ranch style house, near the golf course for $350,000
A large four bedroom ranch style house, again near a golf course for $500,000
An even larger four bedroom with and additional office space for 4670,000
A ten room, 3 bedroom mini estate for $1.500.000

As you can see, there is a great variety in style and price in Myrtle Beach. There are re sells and new constructions and enough variety to please anyone. So whether you go for a vacation and fall in love with Myrtle Beach or use a vacation as a reason to go and look at homes, Myrtle Beach is a must see for anyone who enjoys the beach life style.

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Exercise can be as simple as putting a little more effort in making your daily routine a little more beneficial. While vacuuming or mopping the floor, do it briskly. When going to the mall park at the end of the parking lot and walk up the stairs instead of riding the elevator or escalator. Think of other everyday tasks that you can turn into free workouts. You don’t need to join a gym, hire a trainer or buy expensive equipment to get an effective workout. For instance walking or running is free and if done where there are hills can be a complete workout.

If you are just starting to work out and want to do it as cheap as possible until you have decided how or if you will continue then look around your home for ways to use what’s there. Here are number of items found in most every home that can be turned into no cost exercise equipment. I have used all of these and they are good to get started with.

Canned goods. These make good light hand weights.

Empty milk and water jugs. Fill them with water or sand to get heavier weights.

Rope. Cut the rope to the length you need to make a jump rope.

Stairs. These make great workouts by either walking or running up them.

Dancing. This is a great exercise you can do while listening to the radio or a video.

Step stools. A low stool or anything similar can be used as a stair stepper.

Rope pulley exerciser. A strap for over the door, a pulley and 15 feet of rope is all you need to make an exerciser that can be used for a number of exercise where you use the opposite arm or leg to provide resistance.

Body weight can be used for exercise with push ups, chair dips, jumping jacks, leg lifts or crunches being just a few of the exercises you can do where your body weight provides the resistance.

After you’ve been exercising for a while you will probably start thinking about getting some professional equipment. If cost is still a factor you’re in luck because today you can find used equipment everywhere you look, both free and low cost.

Go online and you’ll find a number of sites where you can ask for free equipment or find people offering it for free. Even when its not free its usually cheap, I guess maybe because who wants the equipment sitting there reminding them of their failure to use it. Check the newspaper ads and bulletin boards also.

Ask your friends and family if they have any equipment they want to get rid of. Over the years I’ve picked up 3 exercise bikes, 2 treadmills, a benchpress bench and hundred of pounds of weights and dumbbells, all free.

There always seems to be some sort of equipment at garage or yard sales. I’ve bought everything from a small dumbbell to a treadmill at them. I’ve also seen those high priced machines they advertise on TV at huge discounts.

Thrift stores are an excellent place to find equipment. Most of them have a discount day when the bargains get even better. A little more expensive but with some bargains are your used equipment stores, such as Play It Again Sports.

Check your local library for exercise books and videos that you can check out free. They range from plain to exotic exercises, such as dancing, aerobics plus many other types of exercise and fitness information sources.

Places where you can get some free exercise include schools which have basketball and tennis courts. Parks often have basketball courts, tennis courts and volleyball nets along with handball courts. Even if you don’t have your own equipment you can usually get in a game of volleyball or basketball. Beaches almost always have volleyball nets where you can usually join in. Frisbee is another almost free activity and many cities have a free Frisbee golf course.

If you live in a condominium, planned community or a mobile home park you’ll find a wealth of free activities. Most of them have swimming pools with many having tennis and basketball courts, shuffleboard, exercise rooms, putting greens etc. Many planned exercise activities are usually available also.

I think you can see that with a little work you can find exercise equipment for free or for very little money as well as free places to exercise. The information here is just some of what’s available and should be able to get you thinking about where or what else you can do to exercise for free or almost free.

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