Huntsville Alabama

If you are interested in the incredible deals that are offered year after year in Huntsville on tax sales real estate here is some information to get you prepared for next years home fiesta!!!

Collections Timeline

September - Recieve tax bills from Tax Assessor
October 1 - Taxes Due
October - December 31 - Payment period
Jan 1  - Taxes are Delinguent
February - Deliquent Tax Payers Advertised
March - Final Delinquent notice mailed/certified funds required
April 3 - Consecutive legal Ads run for unpaid taxes for tax sale
May 2 - Tax Sale Day, selling property untill all sold before the North door of the Courthouse, 10am - 4pm

Year end settlement with the state of Alabama Dept of Revenue is required by June 30th. All taxes due to the state are reconciled

For more information contact:
LYNDA HALL
Tax Collector
256-532-3370

Categories: Real Estate
Tags: real estate tax sale day

By STEVE DOYLE Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com
Homes, land sell forfraction of their value at annual auction here

Terrence Randolph may have struck gold Friday.

The 33-year-old New Market resident paid just $3,200 for three home lots auctioned off by the county to recover delinquent property taxes and fees.

“With land around here going for about $10,000 an acre nowadays, it’s definitely a great deal,” said Randolph, an agent with Rise Real Estate in Huntsville.

Randolph was among about 40 people who gathered outside the courthouse Friday for the county’s annual tax sale. More than 170 homes and vacant lots were up for grabs at bargain basement prices.

Many of the homes had been foreclosed on in the current mortgage crisis, according to Madison County Tax Collector Lynda Hall.

Most of the bidders were like Randolph: local folks hoping to get a property or two for a fraction of its true value. Out-of-town investors scooped up the most attractive homes by bidding up the price above what most auction participants could afford, and still came out with some steals.

For example, a home on Oakline Drive in west Huntsville’s Knox Creek subdivision had an opening bid of $596.63 - the amount of delinquent taxes - but sold for $15,000. Six other homes on that street checked by The Times have an average taxable value of $95,500, county tax records show.

Delinquent taxpayers have until Friday to reclaim their home or land by simply paying their overdue property taxes and fees (In that case, the auction buyer receives a refund).

Beginning next Saturday, owners must pay 12 percent annual interest to the auction buyer to get their property back. If the owner makes no effort to reclaim the property, the auction buyer becomes the legal owner after three years.

It’s almost a no-lose proposition for auction participants, who stand to gain either a hefty interest payment or a house at a cut-rate price.

Stephanie Connor, 70, of Huntsville, walked away from Friday’s auction with a house for $800. Because she didn’t do any research before the sale, she had no idea about the house’s condition or location. Still, at that price, she couldn’t resist.

“I had some extra money I don’t normally have and was looking for a good investment,” said Connor, who showed up well before the sale to stake out a position near the podium. “I do have an idea that this is a sound house. The roof should not be falling in, because code enforcement is so strict now.”

A retired real estate agent, Connor said she hopes to rent the house.

Hall conducted the auction outside her office on the north side of the courthouse. Her voice was occasionally drowned out by passing traffic and ringing church bells.

More than 600 parcels were due to be auctioned, but Hall said employees in her office tracked down most of the owners and settled their tax bills before the sale. Workers used Google Earth satellite images to see which tracts contained homes, then contacted mortgage companies.

“It was unusual in the fact that it took so much work to get (delinquent taxpayers) to pay,” Hall said. “We’ve contacted everybody by phone, by mail or in person, putting the notice on their door.”

The overdue property taxes are based on 2006 tax assessments that were supposed to be paid by Oct. 1, 2007. The taxes became delinquent after Jan. 1.

Categories: Real Estate
Tags: huntsville real estate tax sales

By Emily Howard, Madison Record

One of the most important things to do when getting car repairs is to ask lots of questions, said Nancy Corlett of Corlett Auto in Huntsville.

“Consumers should never assume anybody is looking out for their best interests,” Corlett said. “They should find a shop that works for the vehicle owner and doesn’t try to appease any party outside of the vehicle owner/shop relationship.”

Corlett Auto, which has been in business in Madison County for 25 years, is part of the Collision Repairers for Consumer Choice, a new organization created to educate Alabama consumers in need of collision repair.

She said a major mistake consumers make when getting car repairs after a wreck is assuming someone will “take care of them” and assuming all repairs and repairers are the same. Each repair is unique and should be treated that way, she said.

“Most consumers have very little knowledge of proper repairs. They hand over that damaged car to a repairer and assume it is going to take care of everything that needs to be done. This is the biggest reason consumers are getting bad and unsafe repairers,” she said.

The Collision Repairers for Consumer Choice want people to get the best repairs possible after a car wreck. Many times internal damage is overlooked or hidden and can remain un-repaired. Vehicle owners can protect themselves from unscrupulous repairers and shoddy repairs by asking the right questions before committing to any repair of their automobiles. Asking the following questions developed by the Collision Repairers for Consumer Choice Task Force is often the remedy to overwhelming car repair issues following an accident.

Before leaving your keys at a repair shop, ask the shop manager:

Have you made any oral or written agreements with any outside entity that may alter your professional recommendations concerning the needed repairs to my vehicle?

Have you made any oral or written agreements to discount parts and/or labor with any outside entity for

the repairs to my car? Am I entitled to that discount? Why do you offer these discounts?

Have you made any oral or written agreements that may cause you to withhold any important

information from me concerning the repairs to my vehicle?

Will you provide me with a copy of the agreement with the insurance company handling my claim (if

shop has agreement)? If not, why?

Should my vehicle be repaired using only Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts? Why or why

not?

Are aftermarket, non-OEM, and used parts the same as the parts on my car? If not why?

Will you provide a written opinion concerning the use of OEM parts to repair my vehicle?

Will you deal exclusively with me without influence from an outside party?

Do you work for me or the insurance company or both? How can you satisfy my interests and those of an

entity outside of my repair contract with your shop?

Does your shop install used or salvaged suspension parts to repair vehicles?

Does your shop install used air bags, seat belts or other safety equipment to repair vehicles?

Does your shop install any used or salvaged frame and structural parts?

Does your shop install any used or salvaged weld-on structural sections or body panels?

Will any parts or processes used in the repair of my vehicle alter or void my factory warranties?

For more information, please contact the Collision Repairers for Consumer Choice Task Force at crccal@bellsouth.net or contact Corlett Auto at 539-2451.

Categories: Huntsville Auto
Tags: alabama, auto repair, car collisions, car repair, huntsville, madison

This was blogged by Barbara Ling .
It had to happen. There I was, the calm, cool, self-contained entrepreneur who was happily building several sites simultaneously, writing my profitable blog posts and dashing off the “Why My Son Should Be In Mr. Wrangler’s 2nd Grade Class” when Honorable Eldest Daughter gently removed my brimming coffeecup from the chair, sat down and said in all seriousness, “Mom! Don’t you think I DESERVE an iPhone?”

Figuring that the “Deer in the Headlights” look didn’t quite convey my bemusement, I responded, “Of course you do! And I will be the first person in line to cheer you on when you’ve earned the money to buy it!”

Not being daunted in the least (my kids have the persistence of a Twitterholic who has just spied the latest and greatest Twitter App), she assumed the long-suffering persona of Bambi and assured me that “Oh mom, my allowance doesn’t cover an iPhone!”

Ah hah! Thought I. Here’s a chance to stop the conversation in its tracks! Cleverly pretending to muse upon her woes, I finally said, “Well you know, you can always empower yourself (Mom is big on
empowering, you see, it frees her from being blamed for things like “Gosh Mom, you forgot to set my alarm clock and now I’ve missed finishing (or even starting) my 17 page essay that’s due today!”) and make money on the Internet! Heck, I’ll even walk you through every single step required.” I figured the concept of “using the Internet NOT for watching anime” would be soul-searingly devastating enough she’d back down and let me resume my work.

Oddly enough, she rose to the challenge…and thus was born a brand-spanking new entrepreneur.
And here’s how I did it. If you have children capable of working online, this could be quite profitable for you too!

Step 1.) Consider the source.
Sure, while it’s easy to tell your kids, “Hey kid, go research a targeted audience! Find out the problems that are craving solutions! Write an ebook that sells the solutions! Sell sell sell!”….in reality, that’s not optimal at all. You want their first entrepreneurial adventure to be a success - for that to happen it has to:
Engage their interest
Be easy to do
Be easy to monetize
I settled on blogging for the above reasons. You can blog about anything online, it’s easier than melting ice cream in an oven to find content on a daily basis…AND, due to eBay, it’s easy to monetize as well.

Step 2.) Decide on the project and choose the look/feel
For the reasons stated above, my daughter decided to blog about something she loves - Advanced Calculus and Differential Equations. Okay, no, that’s her mom. She’s blogging about The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 instead.
To blog, one needs a domain name and hosting. GoDaddy offers them cheap, and you can get free hosting at places like http://www.doteasy.com . Sure, she could have put her blog on the Wordpress.com site, but I firmly believe if you’re going to make money, you want to be professional about it.
For the look and feel, I showed her how to research SEO-optimized themes to help with search engine visibility. ‘Course, she was sold instead on how ‘engaging’ a visual theme was. Can’t win ‘em all.

Step 3.) Sign up kid for eBay, Amazon, CJ and Adsense affiliate programs.
These are by far the easiest way to monetize blogs. As you can see on eBay, there are hundreds of Sims items for sale. Amazon.com also offers great deals as well! And don’t forget about t-shirts, coffee cups, other SIM-related games, virtual reality, Second Life, etc.
In almost all cases, you’ll find the same thing regarding your child’s chosen niche as well.

Step 4.) Add the above affiliate programs to the blog template
Many SEO-optimized blogs are also adsense-optimized as well. It only takes a few line-tweakies to change the Adsense to eBay code to Amazon code and back again!

Step 5.) Install the following plugins
Blogs grow by word of mouth, so make it easy for your kid’s blog readership to increase. Add social networking plugins, CommentLuv, and especially anti-spam plugins like BadBehavior, Angsuman’s Referrer Bouncer, Simple Trackback Validation, and Spam Karma. This will help make it easy for people to tell friends about the content they find.

Step 6.) Teach your kid to install a Feedreader and find 20+ related feeds
Blog posts don’t need to be fresh and unique every day - your kid can also pick up on current niche-related news and write his or her impressions about it. Go to Google News and set up a keyword alert, and then proactively search at both Technorati and Boardreader for targeted blogs in the same niche. Have your kid add those feeds to the feedreader.

Step 7.) Blog and Network!
Here’s where your kid starts to actually post. I recommend posting at least once a day until the search engines start to pick it up (my posts are now indexed generally within 10 minutes of publising them).
Once the first posting is complete, encourage your kid to comment at other niche blogs so as to generate a backlink to their personal blog. The more traffic generated and the more visitors that persue the site… the greater the chance of affiliate earnings.

Now, what else can your child blog about? How about targeted niche products on Amazon.com, complete with their affiliate link? Or they can search on Clickbank for niche products (did you know there’s over 26 Clickbank products for World of Warcraft?), contact the authors and ask for a free copy to review (I did that with my World of Warcraft blog). Once reviewed, they can include a direct link to the product with their hoplink used as the URL.

Once they’re comfortable with the whole online adventure, they can add in an optin autoresponder, write up a free report, create an ebook and do any of the other activities we consider normal for
making money online.

The above are some ways you can start your child on the road to making money on the Internet. But! Before you do this, you MUST educate him or her about predators online…and how they must NEVER EVER EVER give out their email addresses, real names, addresses and the like. ‘Matter of fact, I’d recommend having all site email be sent to you first so you can clear out all the porn and other undesirable ickness that comes with the territory.

More resources for kids online safety include:
Kid Safe Kids Rules
Wired Safety
Business and Games
Social Networking Sites: A Parent’s Guide
Stay Safe for Teens
Kids are no longer restricted to lemonaide stands and Girl Scout Cookies to earn money - give them the self-confidence (and profits!) that come from building, maintaining and growing a world class site. The benefits they’ll receive will far encompass more than mere monetary satisfaction…for a long long time in the future as well.

Categories: Affiliate Marketing, Real Estate
Tags: kids online, make money online

An Alabama affiliate marketing summit is overdue. I have been in the affiliate marketing and web design business since 2000, and I have not come across any affiliate marketing event in Alabama. I receive ad information for summits daily and they are always in California, New York, New Jersey, Chicago and so on.

With so many tech guys in the Huntsville, Alabama area (Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder is from Huntsville; one of the biggest blogging site on the net 451press is also from Huntsville) the time has come for an internet / webdesign / affiliate marketing event in Alabama.

There are many people from Alabama who are engaged daily in buying and selling on the internet, so the time to harnest the resources of Alabama internet marketers is now!

If you make money on the internet and is interested in an event like this contact me: press@huntsvillepr.com

Categories: Affiliate Marketing
Tags: affiliate maketing, alabama affiliate

by WILLIAM THORNTON
Irondale’s Casey Middlebrooks would really like to sell his 2006 Volkswagen Touareg sport utility vehicle. With extras and only 30,000 miles, he’s been looking for a buyer willing to pay the $28,450 asking price.

He’s been looking for two months.

“I hate to get rid of it, but we’re definitely going for something a little more economical,” Middlebrooks said. “It’s such a good car, but we’re about to start a family.”

Middlebrooks is not alone. Surging record gas prices are causing some auto owners to look for more economical vehicles, meaning potential trouble for used SUVs.

The national average for regular gasoline Wednesday was $3.76 a gallon, an increase of 39 cents in just a month. In Alabama, it was $3.67. A year ago, gas was $2.89 in Alabama. Some analysts expect the price to go over the $4 mark this year.

That could be bad news for SUV owners and dealers. Used SUV sales have been trending downward this year - plummeting 14 percent in March nationally and down more than 8 percent for the first two months of the year from a year earlier, according to CNW Marketing Research.

Billy Clark, who purchases used cars at auction for Birmingham’s Jack Sellers Auto Sales, said he stopped buying SUVs for resale at least two or three months ago, when gas prices began spiking over $3.

“Business is no good on them,” Clark said. “I don’t think it’s any different for anybody else. Gas is affecting everybody.”

Justin Gilmore of Homewood is trying to find a buyer for his 2000 Toyota 4Runner that has 130,000 miles. He’s had several calls the last three weeks, but no one to test-drive it. He’s asking $9,250 but thinks the price might be too high. Kelley’s Blue Book recommends a price about $1,000 less.

Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for California-based J.D. Power and Associates, said sales of all new sport utility segments of the U.S. automotive market are “doing very poorly” from their rates a year ago, which inevitably affects used sales.

“It’s across the board - the rate of getting them off the lots, the loyalty rates of customers who will trade another similar model, it’s indisputable,” Libby said. “And it’s for all segments, compact, midsized, large, and luxury midsized and large.”

Libby said J.D. Power tracks the turn rate - the number of days it takes to sell a particular category of vehicle. The six categories of SUVs, from compact utility to large premium, have some of the longest turn rates among new vehicles. It takes an average of 78 days to sell a new midsized SUV, compared with a 61-day average for most categories.

The news is not all bad for used SUVs. While four of the six categories were the same or higher than the average of 49 days on the lot, compact and compact premium SUVs had quicker turn rates - 34 and 47 days.

But as it becomes harder to move new SUVs off the lot, those wishing to trade in or sell SUVs may find it harder to get their expected price. That is true especially for the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet’s Trailblazer and Tahoe, Libby said. more on the story

Categories: Huntsville Auto
Tags: alabama gas prices, auto sales, used cars

RealtyTrac released data today showing 642 filings in the state in April, a drop of nearly 29 percent from the same month in 2007 and 1 percent from the month before. Foreclosure filings across the nation rose 65 percent in April from the prior-year and 4 percent from the previous month, the firm said.

“The total number of U.S. properties with foreclosure activity in April was the highest monthly total we’ve seen since we began issuing the report in January 2005,” said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio. “Although only about 2 percent of households nationwide are in foreclosure, these properties contribute to already bloated inventories of homes for sale, and put downward pressure on home values.

“Areas of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona continue to be particularly hard-hit. Property tax bases are eroding, putting municipal budgets in peril,” he added.

Alabama has escaped those problems. The April figure represented one filing for every 3,287 Alabama households, lower than the national average of one in 519. Alabama ranked No. 42 among the states last month

Categories: Real Estate
Tags: alabama foreclosure

 

by  Geneva Brewer

My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned…couldn’t concentrate.

After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn’t suited for it…mainly because it was a so-so job.

Then I tried to be a chef — figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just didn’t have the thyme.

Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was too exhausting.

I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.

I attempted to be a deli worker, but anyway I sliced it, I couldn’t cut the mustard.

Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the ax.

Next was a job in a shoe factory; I tried but I just didn’t fit in.

So then I got a job in a workout center, but they said I wasn’t fit for the job.

After many years of trying to find steady work I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.

I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn’t have any patience.

My best job was being a musician, but eventually I found I wasn’t noteworthy.

I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net income.

My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.

SO I RETIRED AND FOUND I’M PERFECT FOR THE JOB!

Categories: Religion
Tags: perfect job

 

Begin Date:
Saturday, May 24, 2008 

Other Location:

 Huntsville Jaycees Fairground (Festival); Blues Under the Roof (TBA) 

 May 24, Huntsville
North Alabama “Down Home” Blues Festival
256-536-4312. Admission charged. Huntsville Jaycees Fairground—An outdoor celebration with emphasis on new and legendary soul and blues artists. Event designed to preserve one of the purest and truest forms of African-American music and art, the blues.

 

  

 

Hours:  Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Contact Information
Phone:	256-536-4312

 Visit Huntsville events or Alabama fest for more Alabama events

Categories: Events / Festivals
Tags: blues festival

The Women’s Business Center of North Alabama (WBCNA) is offering a workshop on Wednesday, June 4, from 1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m., entitled “The ABCs of Starting Your Own Business.”

Learn about being an entrepreneur and what it takes to start your own business. We’ll cover getting started, type of business, legal structure, business planning, financing, business licenses, marketing, and much more. You’ll also receive valuable tips on how to be successful.

The WBCNA is conveniently located in the Crestwood Women’s Center at 185 Chateau Drive (off Airport Road in Huntsville). The cost to attend is $25.00 (pay at the door - cash or check payable to WBCNA).  Make reservations online at www.wbcna.org or by calling 256-213-2727. Scholarships are available for qualified clients. 

Categories: Business Events
Tags: huntsville small business, starting a business