Advantages of learning greek for kids

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There are dozens of reasons to teach children to speak the Greek language, as Greek is rooted in some of the strongest traditions of Western culture. While learning to speak the language, kids will learn about the rich background of Greece and the history of the Greek-speaking world. Children who learn Greek through our program also pick up essential language skills, allowing for easier language acquisition later in life. Native English speakers often have trouble learning new types of conjugation, new verbs and other parts of speech, and while there are a number of similarities between Greek and English, there are also many significant differences. One of the major advantages of teaching Greek to children is that younger minds are able to grasp these differences easily, as the language centers of their brains are naturally able to adapt to the challenges of new languages and syntax. By learning to translate english to greek and vice-versa, children will develop these language centers. There are a number of other advantages to greek for kids programs. Many high-quality language programs will teach greek mythology for kids, which will provide a solid background for later literary study as many American and British authors regularly reference Greek mythological archetypes. Kids will also learn Greek history, which can allow for a different perspective on world events. Going from English to Greek can be difficult at first, but children who start learning how to speak Greek with a program will enjoy long term benefits, including better language acquisition skills and an improved understanding of Greek literature and history skills that can make a big difference over the course of a child?s education.

If you have a Greek background, but you find that your children are unable to master the language anymore, you will want to look online for a variety of different learning packages that are designed for this purpose. It is generally best to start young with the children so that they are able to easily pick up the language and master it. Those who are interested in helping their children learn greek will find that the packages offer everything that they are looking for from learning materials to video and audio recordings and more. There are different grade levels available, and children can go through each level as if they were attending school. The learning packages are offered online and easily accessible. Children will be able to follow the materials on the computer, and there are even fun activities and videos that will captivate their attention and make learning a fun process!

10 March 2012 | higher education news

Source: http://www.designfrog.net/higher-education-news/advantages-of-learning-greek-for-kids/

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Angelina Jolie Responds to Kony Viral Video ?He?s a Horrible Human Being?

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Angelina Jolie expressed her support for the viral video that has swept the world in just a few short days, calling for the arrest of the world’s most wanted criminal, Joseph Kony, fugitive leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Jolie, who attended the Women’s Summit event in NYC, [...]

Source: http://www.celebritymound.com/angelina-jolie-responds-to-kony-viral-video-hes-a-horrible-human-being/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=angelina-jolie-responds-to-kony-viral-video-hes-a-horrible-human-being

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The Ugly Truth (talking-points-memo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/209466482?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Tips on How to Prepare Yourself For a Body Detox

Have you been experiencing frequent headaches, constipation, lack of energy and other unexplained health issues? If yes, then you should consider doing a full body detox. Detoxification, or detox in short refers to the overall cleansing of the body through various means such as herbal solutions and other therapies. As the name suggests, it is a process of removing toxins from the body. It basically accelerates the elimination of body waste, helps clean the colon, and enhances blood circulation. Regular intake of processed foods, a stressful lifestyle and exposure to day to day pollution are some of the factors that can lead to toxin build up in the body.

Although detoxification is a great process for your health, it can be quite difficult to do. It is very important to prepare yourself prior to your detox, especially if you're not fit and "super healthy".

If you detox too quickly, for sure you will experience side effects such as nausea, massive headaches and fatigue when all the toxins re-enter your bloodstream. With this, let me share to you some tips on how you can prepare yourself for a body detox.
1. Don't do a vigorous detox epecially if it's your first time. It is very important to choose a detox program that is not too harsh on your body. On the flipside, don't choose a very mild detox program since that won't give you anything beneficial.

2. Consult your doctor prior to starting any detox program. Most detox programs involve major diet modifications. Making an abrupt dramatic change in your nutrition can sometimes trigger problems such as acid reflux if you're hyperacidic.

So before starting with your detox, it's best to consult your doctor to address your specific issues. Your doctor can give you other detox alternatives if your chosen detox program isn't suitable for your current health condition.

3. Don't binge eat prior to your detox. The main point of having a detox is to clean your body of impurities. Eating lots of junk would then double the work of your detox.

4. For the women, avoid doing a detox if you're pregnant. To be on the safe side, pregnant women should hold off on detoxing until after they have given birth.

5. Plan your detox well. Give it some thought as to when you will start and end your detox. Avoid doing a detox when your stress levels are high. Schedule your detox on days when you can keep your activity level to a minimum.

Source: http://health.ezinemark.com/tips-on-how-to-prepare-yourself-for-a-body-detox-18d5d7949d6.html

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PlayGround Blog: PlayGround Film Fest Finalists Announced!

?The envelope, please. And the winner is?.? On the heels of the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, PlayGround and partner Dances with Light have announced the six local filmmaker-playwright teams named as finalists for this year?s inaugural PlayGround Film Festival. Each will receive $1,500 in seed funding for their film adaptations of the short plays previously developed and produced as part of PlayGround?s annual new plays showcase, the Best of PlayGround Festival. The six finalist films will be screened at the inaugural PlayGround Film Festival, taking place this May in conjunction with the 16th annual Best of PlayGround Festival.

The finalists are:

The Beginning (Brian Tolle, filmmaker; Tom Swift, screenwriter and producer, based on the short play by Tom Swift from the 2005 Best of PlayGround Festival)

Ecce Homo (Jonathan Luskin/Mark Leialoha/Flying Moose Pictures, filmmakers; Jonathan Luskin, screenwriter; based on the short play by Jonathan Luskin from the 2011 Best of PlayGround Festival)

O Happy Dagger (Chad Blevins, filmmaker; Crish Barth, screenwriter; based on the short play by Crish Barth from the 2008 Best of PlayGround Festival)

Rapunzel?s Etymology of Zero (an animated short; Seth Podowitz, filmmaker; Katie May, screenwriter; Katie May and Liz Anderson, co-producers; David Azer, Jan Heiman, Eileen Laitinen, Brendan Oshima, and Rachel Whalon, animators; based on the short play by Katie May from the 2011 Best of PlayGround Festival)

Reunion (Gregory Runnels and Mark Runnels, filmmakers; Kenn Rabin, screenwriter; based on the short play by Kenn Rabin from the 2004 Best of PlayGround Festival)

Wednesday (Jennifer Arzt, filmmaker; Daniel Heath, screenwriter; based on the short play by Daniel Heath from the 2009 Best of PlayGround Festival)

PlayGround Film Festival co-producers Jim Kleinmann and Barry Stone congratulated the winning teams at a private reception before the February 20 Monday Night PlayGround performance. ?We?re so excited by the strength of this year?s proposals ? the incredible group of local filmmakers, writers and producers who have come together to develop these six short films! The theatre- and film-going communities are in for a real treat this May!?

The Beginning, a Monday Night reading Series and Festival favorite, is a simple story that focuses on one moment of profound passion, fear and hope. On a cold dark night two naked strangers struggle to connect.? What is the question?? And, what is their answer? Brian Tolle (filmmaker) has written and directed short films for the past fifteen years, evolving from two person productions like 2:47am into professional crew and cast for the lamp. In addition to directing The Beginning, he is currently finishing development on a feature-length romantic comedy, All the Others Were Practice. When he?s not producing his own films, Brian works as a Visual Effects Artist for Hollywood movies, specializing in computer generated cameras. Tom Swift and His Amazing Productions, LLC (producer) was founded by business partners and Financial Avengers, Tom Swift and Arthur McCord.? Their most recent production (My Name Is Yin, a 2004 Best of PlayGround Festival selection) was one of six winners of the 2011 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival.? The Beginning is their first film project.

Ecce Homo delighted audiences at the 15th annual Best of PlayGround Festival. Set in 1932, the play is the story of two vaudeville players, Gus and Fanny, as they face the demise of their stage careers brought on by moving pictures. Through the loving conflict of a married couple, Ecce Homo illuminates a very contemporary theme: how we struggle to survive the incessant technological change that threatens our livelihoods and our relationships. Jonathan Luskin (director, writer, producer) is a veteran of seven PlayGround seasons and has received two Emerging Playwright Awards. He has worked at the Playwrights Lab, received a commission from the Magic Theatre to write Early Adopter, and his play, n of 1, was selected for the Bay Area Shorts Festival. Jonathan has directed for many Bay Area theater companies, and was recently awarded a Djerassi Artist's Residency, where he developed Ecce Homo. He has animated for leading visual-effects companies and is a co-founder along with Mark Leialoha of Flying Moose Pictures (producer), a video production company. Mark Leialoha (director of photography/producer) has a passion for photography and film that spans over two decades, Mark has travelled throughout Europe, the US and Far East as a principal contributing photographer, his innovative and creative editorial & commercial photography featured in more than 75 magazines in over 25 countries. With extensive production skills, encompassing still & video camera operation, lighting, audio and editing, Mark offers a unique approach and vision to every project. He has served as Director of Photography for the feature-length independent film ?Maladaptive.? Mark?s still photography will next appear in Kirk Hammett?s Too Much Horror Business. Jessica Heidt (producer) is an award-winning director, producer & casting director. She has been involved with PlayGround since 2004 and has worked closely with Flying Moose Pictures on many projects.? Heidt is the former Artistic Director of Climate Theater and Associate Artistic Director of Magic Theatre.? She has worked as a casting director with many Bay Area film and theater companies and currently teaches at Film Acting Bay Area.

O Happy Dagger is a forthcoming short film by Chad Blevins.? Originally a stage play written by Crish Barth and premiered at the 2008 Best of PlayGround Festival, the story is about a desperate actor who, in order to achieve incredible fame, must contemplate paying the ultimate price. Chad Blevins (filmmaker) earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In 2010, he settled in San Francisco to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts in Motion Pictures and Television from the Academy of Art University. His art has been exhibited in galleries and comic book conventions as well as being published in comics, magazines and websites. Crish Barth (writer) has written over 30 short plays and has had several of those produced in the last few years. He is a company member of PlayGround where he received the 2008 Emerging Playwright Award. ?Locally, his work has appeared in?the Best of PlayGround Festival,?several Bay One Acts Festivals (BOA), the San Francisco Theatre Festival, the One Minute Play Festival, PianoFight's Short-Lived, and the 8 Tens @ 8 Festival in Santa Cruz. ?Nationally, his works have been seen in both the Strawberry One Act Festival and the Salute UR Shorts Festival in New York City as well as the Midway Festival of Plays in Kentucky. ?He is a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting.

Rapunzel?s Etymology of Zero was written by Katie May for PlayGround?s annual ?Math Night? presented in collaboration with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and featured in the 15^th annual Best of PlayGround Festival. In this feminist fairytale, Rapunzel locks herself in a tall tower and concocts a story of an evil stepmother to focus on her blossoming love of mathematics and avoid the attentions of a young prince. Katie May (writer, producer, adaptor) is a recipient of the PlayGround Emerging Playwrights Award and Fellowship for 2011.?She is a contributing writer to the live radio show, 915 Cayuga, and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Arizona State University. Seth Podowitz (filmmaker) is directing, co-adapting and scoring music for the animated film short of Rapunzel. Animators include David Azer, Jan Heiman, Eileen Laitinen, Brendan Oshima, and Rachel Whalon. Katie Siller is animation production manager. Liz Anderson is co-producing and performing the role of Rapunzel to Patrick Russell?s Prince. Khamara Pettus is voicing the Narrator.

Ripped from today's headlines, Reunion is playwright Kenn Rabin?s story of a convicted sex offender, recently released from prison, who finds a new home with Deb, a woman determined to stand up for his rights and live down her own past. The play received its premiere at the 2004 Best of PlayGround Festival. Kenn Rabin (writer) has written several full-length and numerous short plays, including How to Chop Wood, Hotel Poststrasse, and When the Dead Weep, as well as Celadon Box #8, Hunters and Gatherers, and Reunion, the latter three of which won PlayGround Emerging Playwrights Awards. Mr. Rabin received a PlayGround Fellowship, a Marin Arts Council Individual Grant, and Marin Theatre Company?s first-ever commission for Found Objects. His documentary and feature credits include PBS? Eyes on the Prize and Vietnam: A Television History, Sean Penn?s The Indian Runner, George Clooney?s Good Night, and Good Luck, Steven Soderbergh?s The Good German, and Gus Van Sant?s Milk. He?s a member of the Dramatists Guild. The Runnels Brothers, Greg and Mark (filmmakers), have been working together creatively since the early-1990's. They have directed several short films, commercials, music videos and plays. Their feature film Youthanasia was acquired by York Entertainment and is available through Netflix. Their animated short film Breakfast with Bukowski has been screened at several festivals and recently won the Slamdance Social Shorties. They are now in development on their next feature film Bukowski: An Animated Life.

In Daniel Heath?s Wednesday, a couple decides to liven up their evening one ordinary Wednesday with a question-and-answer drinking game. A few drinks in, Eve asks Robert a question that puts their marriage to the ultimate test. Jennifer Arzt (filmmaker) holds a MFA in Film, Television, and Recording Arts where she pursued writing, directing, and producing. Her films have appeared in festivals across the country, winning a few awards, including the Directors Guild of America Student Film Award. Formerly the Program Director of Script Frenzy, she is now freelancing as a writer/director on projects big and small. Daniel Heath's (writer) recent productions of full-length plays include Man of Rock (New York Musical Theatre Festival 2011, and the Climate Theatre, San Francisco, 2010), Seven Days (SF Playhouse, San Francisco, 2010) and A Merry Forking Christmas (PianoFight, San Francisco, 2009, 2010, and 2011). He is a three-time recipient of commissions from PlayGround(2009, 2010, and 2012) and a four-time winner of the PlayGround Emerging Playwright Award (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011); he is also currently working on a commission from Just Theater. His award-winning short plays have been performed across the United States and Canada. Featuring in the cast are Brian Herndon and Cindy Goldfield, reprising their roles from the 2009 Best of PlayGround Festival.

Since 1994, PlayGround has been a leading incubator for some of the Bay Area?s most promising new playwrights, premiering 103 original short plays by 51 Bay Area emerging playwrights from several thousand submissions through its Monday Night PlayGround staged reading series and Best of PlayGround Festival. PlayGround has also commissioned 41 new full-length plays and supports the premiere of many of these works in partnership with Bay Area theatres through its innovative New Play Production Fund. PlayGround alumni include a who?s who of the Bay Area?s best up-and-coming writers, including Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Daniel Heath, Ken Slattery, among others, with many having their first professional production through PlayGround.

PlayGround?s alumni have gone on to win not only local but also national honors for short and full-length work, including recognition at the Humana Festival, Sundance Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Aurora Theatre Company?s Global Age Project, Guthrie Theatre, Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and The Drama League?s New Directors-New Works series.? Works have been premiered at numerous theatres throughout the Bay Area, including: Theatre Rhinoceros, San Jose Stage Company, Just Theater, and SF Playhouse. Of particular note is Aaron Loeb?s Abraham Lincoln?s Big Gay Dance Party which, following its premiere at SF Playhouse in 2008, received a sold-out run at the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival (named ?Outstanding Play?), its off-Broadway debut in 2010, and is being produced around the country this season.

Barry Stone, owner of Dances with Light, made his first film in 1979. He has professional credits as an actor, composer and director in the theatre, and as a producer, director, writer, composer, actor, cinematographer and editor in film and television. His directorial credits include four episodes of the British hit series rENFORD rEJECTS, filmed in London for Nickelodeon and Channel Four, "All Ways Welcome", produced and directed for the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation, and numerous commercials, music videos and corporate films. Barry has been the cinematographer on forty-seven episodes of series television, six MOWs, numerous commercials and twenty-one feature films, notably Lie with me, Mouth to Mouth, Cherish, Triggermen, Pale Saints, Paris France, Rude, Dumbarton Bridge,? The Perfect Son and Dream with the Fishes.? Recently Barry produced and directed SNIFF, a feature length drama / documentary hybrid with Amanda Plummer, Neil Morrissey (and a lot of great dogs).

?For more information, contact PlayGround Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann at jim@playground-sf.org or (415) 992-6677.
The inaugural PlayGround Film Festival teams (L-R): Daniel Heath, Barry Stone, Greg Runnels (rear), Barry Stone, Mark Runnels (rear), Chad Blevins, Jennifer Arzt, Brian Tolle (rear), Tom Swift, Jonathan Luskin (rear), Mark Leialoha, Katie May, Jim Kleinmann, and Liz Anderson (not pictured: Seth Podowitz, Kenn Rabin, Crish Barth).

Source: http://blog.playground-sf.org/2012/03/playground-film-fest-finalists.html

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Essential Keys to Self Improvement | SemOifc

What are the 3 keys to self improvement and motivation? They are

1. INSPIRATION
Inspiration is essential to staying motivated and improving oneself. If you are not interested in your business, your motivation level will under no circumstances be high and you will not be able to sustain interest for highly extended. Take an honest look at your inspiration level. Are you excited about going to operate or is it an obligation? You would be shocked at the number of folks who opt for a company that looks great on paper, but in reality does not interest them in the least.

These folks will grow weary and uninterested fairly promptly considering they have no inspiration or passion to sustain them during the hard times they will encounter as a little small business owner. If you do not like your work, then believe how you can re-concentrate your small enterprise to better match your requirements. Or take into consideration generating a adjust entirely. Without inspiration, there will not be motivated to even try self improvement.

2. SETTING Objectives
Short and extended-term goal setting is important for any enterprise owner. If you do not set targets, you would have no definite objective on which path of self improvement to take. How could you possibly be motivated if you had been unsure about the path of your organization? Take the time to place your targets in writing. A small business strategy could possibly sound daunting, but it is definitely nothing alot more than targets, tactics, implementation and a spending budget. Write your personal business strategy and update it at least annually.

Include things like mini-goals that can be achieved in a matter of hours, days or weeks as well as the even more ambitious grand-goals that can take years to complete. Refer to this plan all through the year. But can a home business strategy genuinely help motivate you? Of course. Written goals will make you really feel much more professional and absolutely extra connected to your small business. It will also free you from having to reinvent your company targets every single single day.

three. NETWORKING
A different key element in getting and staying motivated is networking with other little small business owners. No a single person knows all the information. Even so, when a number of people today begin working together, the challenges will just be there waiting to be conquered.

In reality, the isolation of working alone is of a single the most difficult parts of getting an entrepreneur. You can never ever be on your way to self improvement without the aid of other individuals. Mutual help is motivating. Make it simpler on your self by connecting with other people either in your community or via the internet. Even when businesses are not related, you will regularly uncover common ground and ways to operate together.

Quite a few effective entrepreneurs report that discovering the ideal networking group was a turning point in the growth of the business. Working together, a networking group can assist its members produce much more qualified sales leads and solve issues quicker and far more efficiently. Sharing suggestions, expertise and experience is also an invaluable aspect of motivation and self improvement.

Your personal personal team of company owners will support re-energize you when the burdens of running your personal enterprise appear too a lot. With your networking team to rely on, you can accomplish a great deal more in less time and possibly have additional fun in the procedure. You will feel motivated to achieve self improvement when you know you are not alone Education Corner

Source: http://semoifc.com/careers/essential-keys-to-self-improvement/

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What Investors Should Know About Commercial Real Estate Loans ...

Your commercial real estate transaction does not close unless the loan is approved. You can also improve the cash flow if the interest rate for the loan is low. So the more you know about commercial loans the better decision you can make about your commercial real estate investment.

Loan Qualification: Most of you have applied for a residential loan. You provide to the lender with W2?s and/or tax returns. In general the more income you make the higher loan amount you qualify. You could even borrow 100% of the purchase price if your income or stated income is strong. For commercial loan, the amount of loan the lender will approve is based on the rental income of the property, not your personal income. So the more rental income the property generates, i.e. the higher the CAP rate, the higher loan to value (LTV) the lender approves. If you buy a vacant commercial building, you will have difficult time getting a loan as it does not have any rental income unless you plan to occupy it for your business.

Loan to Value: Commercial lenders tend to be more conservative about the loan to value. Most commercial lenders loan up 75% of the value of the property. The following is just a rough guideline for LTV based on the CAP rate as the actual calculation is beyond the scope of this article.

CAP ?? LTV

8% ?? 75%

7% ?? 67%

6% ?? 55%

5% ?? 45%

Lenders will only loan you the amount such that the income after expenses, i.e. net operating income is at least 20-25% more than the annual mortgage payment of the property. Or another words, the loan amount is such that you will have positive cash flow equal to at least 20-25% of the mortgage payment. So if you purchase a property with low CAP rate, you will need more down payment. This is so true for commercial properties in California as the CAP rate is in the 5% range. Commercial real estate is intended for the elite group of investors so there is no such thing as 100% financing.

Interest Rate: The interest for commercial is dependent on various factors

Loan amount: In residential mortgage if you borrow less money, i.e. a conforming loan, your interest rate will be the lowest. When you borrow more money, i.e. a jumbo or super jumbo loan, your rate will be higher. In commercial mortgage, the reverse is true! If you borrow $200K loan your rate could be 9%. But you borrow $3M, your rate could be only 5.9%! In a sense, it?s like getting lower price when you buy an item in large volume at Costco.

Property type: the interest rate for a single tenant night club building will be higher than multi-tenant retail strip because the risk is higher. When the night club building is foreclosed, it?s much harder to sell or rent it compared to the multi-tenant retail strip. The rate for apartment is lower than shopping strip. To the lender, everyone needs a roof over their head no matter what so the rate is lower for apartment.

Age of the property: loan for newer property will have lower rate than dilapidated one. To the lender the risk factor for older properties is higher so the rate is higher.

Area: if the property is located in a growing area like Atlanta metro the rate would be lower than a similar property located in the rural declining area of Arkansas. This is another reason you should study demographic data of the area before you buy the property.

Your credit history: similarly to residential loan, if you have good credit history, your rate is lower.

The lenders you apply the loan with: Each lender has its own rates. There could be significant difference, e.g. over 1%, in the interest rates. So you should work with someone specialized on commercial loans to shop for the lowest rates.

Prepayment flexibility: If you want to have the flexibility to prepay the loan then you will have to pay higher rate. If you agree to keep the loan for the term of the loan, then the rate could be 1% interest lower. See more on conduit loan.

Prepayment Penalty: In residential loan, prepayment penalty is often an option. If you don?t want it, you pay higher rate. Most commercial loans have prepayment penalty. The prepayment penalty amount is reduced or stepped down every year. For example on a 5 year fixed rate loan, the prepayment penalty for the first year is 5% of the balance. It?s reduced to 4% and then 3%, 2%, 1% for 2nd, 3rd, 4-th and 5-th year respectively.

Loan Fees: In residential mortgage, lenders may offer you a ?no points, no costs? option if you pay a higher rate. Such option is not available in commercial mortgage. You will have to pay between ? to 1 point loan fee, appraisal cost, environment assessment report fee, and processing/underwriting fee. A lender normally issues to the borrower a Letter of Interest (LOI) if it is interested in lending you the money. The LOI states the loan amount, interest rate, loan term and fees. Once the borrower pays all the fees, the lender starts underwriting the loan. If the lender approves the loan and you do not accept it then the lender keeps all the fees.

Loan Types: While there various commercial loan types, most investors often encounter 3 main types of commercial loans:

Business Administration or SBA loan. This is a government guaranteed loan intended for owner-occupied properties. When you occupy 51% or more of the space in the building (gas station is considered an owner-occupied property), you are qualified for this program. The key benefit is you can borrow up 90% of purchased price.

Portfolio loan. This is the type of commercial loans the lenders loan to you using their own money. Lenders are often more flexible because it?s their money. For example United Commercial, Citi Bank or Cathay Bank is a portfolio lender.

Conduit loan. It?s harder to explain to an average consumer or investor what a conduit loan is. It?s easier identifying it by its characteristics or just simply ask the lender.

The rate is often lower. It is often around 1.2% over the 5 or 10 year US Treasury rates compared to 1.85-3% over the 5 or 10 year US Treasury rates for portfolio loan. This is the key advantage of conduit loan.

Conduit lenders only consider big loan amount, e.g. at least $2M.

Lenders require borrower to form a single-asset entity, e.g. Limited Liability Company (LLC) to take title to the property. This is intended to shield the property from other the borrower?s liabilities.

If the borrower later wants to sell the property before the lock out period expires, the new buyer must assume the loan as the seller can not pay off the loan. This makes it harder to sell the property because the buyer needs to come up with a significant amount of cash for the difference between the purchase price and loan balance. Furthermore, the lender could reject the loan assumption application for various reasons as there are no incentives for it to do so. If you are a 1031-exchange buyer, you may want to think twice about buying a property in which you must assume the loan. Should the lender reject your loan assumption application, you may end up not qualifying for the 1031 exchange and have to send to Uncle Sam a big capital gain check. This is the hidden cost of conduit loan.

Even when you are allowed to prepay the loan, it costs an arm and a leg if you want to prepay the loan. The prepayment penalty is often called Yield Maintenance or Defeasance. Basically you have to pay the difference in interest between the note rate of your loan and the current US Treasury rate for the remaining years of the loan! This amount is often so high that the seller normally requires the buyer to assume the loan. You can compute the defeasance from defeasewithease.com website. Besides the defeasance, you also have to pay a hefty processing fee which is in the $50-60K range! These are another hidden cost of conduit loan.
Conduit loan may be the loan for you if you intend to keep the loan for the life of the loan that you agree to at the beginning. Otherwise it could be very costly due to its payoff inflexibility.

Lenders Coverage Area: commercial lenders would do business in areas they are familiar with. For example while Green Point Commercial does business in Northern California, it does not cover Fresno or Sacramento County. United Commercial Bank will only consider properties in California. Provident Bank does business in Arizona, California and Nevada. Silver Hill Financial covers all 50 states but has a one million dollar loan limit. Kennedy Funding does business almost anywhere but the rate is pretty high as it is a hard-money lender. GE Commercial Financing will only consider transaction with at least $5M loan.

Lenders Coverage Property Types: Most commercial lenders would only consider a certain types of properties that they are familiar with. For example Washington Mutual would do apartments and office buildings but not retail properties or gas stations. Citibank would not consider loans for single tenant retail properties. Westford Financial specializes on church financing. Comerica concentrates on owner-occupied properties.

Conclusion:

Commercial loans are a lot more complex than residential loans. As an investor, you should employ a professional commercial loan broker to assist you with your commercial loan need. Chances are that you will end up paying lower interest rates, avoiding potential pitfalls and having a better chance to get the loan approved.

David V. Tran is the President and Chief Investment Advisor at Transmercial (formerly eFunding, Inc.), a commercial real estate & loan brokerage company in San Jose, CA. His website is http://www.transmercial.com He may be contacted at (408) 288-5500. Transmercial does business in all 50 states. He is the #1 US commercial real estate expert author. David currently offers 3 FREE real estate investment seminars:

How to invest in commercial real estate for early retirement income. How to maximize cash flow with 1031 tax-deferred exchange. TIC: Fractional ownership in high-value commercial properties.

David?s blog features a daily list of Best Commercial Properties in the US to invest for early retirement income.

You are welcome to share this report, unedited and in its entirety, with anyone you like. You may not remove this text. c 2007-2009 Transmercial.

Source: http://hardmoneylenders.go4buy.org/what-investors-should-know-about-commercial-real-estate-loans/

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