Parish House Resources

Everything you need to do know about international auto shipping to Costa Rica is right here at your finger tips. If you are unsure of where to start, you can fill in the online form and get 100% non binding quotes from international auto shipping agents in your area. Completely free!

Whether you want to ship your car by air, sea or by land, there are certain regulations that need to be met, and rules that need to be followed. You will find details of all of these here.

Before you begin, you need to decide which mode of transport you are going to choose. Then you can narrow the field of international auto shipping agents to choose from. Sea freight is the preferred method, and there are 3 ports where your vehicle can enter Costa Rica: Puerto Limon – largest port, Puerto Caldera and San Jose.

Once you have decided on your method of transport, you will need to take note of and be able to meet the following points:

Documents Required:

•    Original receipt of purchase for the vehicle being transported
•    All registration documentation pertaining to the vehicle

Fees and Taxes payable:

There is a high tax charge when bringing your vehicle into Costa Rica using international auto shipping. Some examples of the taxes charged are: Import tax; sales tax; consumption tax etc. No amount is set as there are various items that are taken into consideration when calculating your tax payable. For instance:

•    The value of your car
•    The model of your car
•    The year it was purchased
•    Consumption levels and engine capacity

These are all take into account and a unique amount is presented to you.

It can be arranged, upon your physical entry into Costa Rica, that you drive your vehicle for 3 months without paying tax. This can be discussed with the Consulate of Costa Rica.

Gas Emissions Certificate:

You will need to obtain a gas emissions clearance certificate that has been issued within 30 days of the vehicle arriving in Costa Rica. Without this document stating that your car has been cleared for entry based on its levels of gas emissions, you will not be able to transport your car via international auto shipping into the country.

Customs Procedures:

One more decision you will need to make is: are you going to import the car by yourself, or will you use the services of a freight forwarder? Most people choose to use the services of freight forwarders as they will know exactly what is required and have all the relevant contacts. Added to this, they will be local and able to speak the language.

However, if you choose to import the car yourself, it is strongly advised to do so in San Jose. The reason behind this is that your vehicle will be cleared far quicker here than at the other two ports where you would probably be required to stay overnight.

Taking this into account, you will no doubt find it easier to choose your international auto shipping agency using our online form. Best of luck!

International Moving

Most people realize that mold is a health hazard if it is let to grow inside our homes in almost any quantity, but trying to file an insurance claim on it is a pretty hard thing to do, since most homeowner’s insurance policies do not allow for mold claims.  Unless the mold was caused by something that was covered by the policy and it occurred as a direct result of that event, it is not covered under most policies.  A separate insurance policy covering only mold damage needs to be purchased.

Many insurance claims adjusters inspecting your home after water damage that your home was covered for will tell you that mold is not the big issue that everyone says that it is and it will not cause you any harm if you leave it there, but this is completely untrue.  They will possibly attempt to get you to agree with them or concede that you may not actually need the remediation done, but unfortunately, this is a trick.  If they need proof that mold has been a problem since ancient times, something that you can do is quote the Bible to them.  

The texts in Leviticus chapter 14 are the oldest written accounts of mold affecting a home or business building.  The book actually calls the infestation a “leprous plague” and it states it as a growth that appears on the walls.  Families went to priests for this problem just as they would for any other problem occurring that concerned their homes or their lives and as with any other problem, the advice was always followed.  That advice was to take everything out of the home contaminated with the growth and to throw it away far from town in what the scripture called an “unclean place”.  After this was done, the house was closed off for a week and when the priest came back to do another inspection, if the growth had returned, then the house was torn down.  All the building materials were taken to that unclean place also.

It is thought that even the last plague of Moses could be attributed to mold growth on the grains that the Egyptians stored underground to protect them from the locusts.  Stachybotrys atra is thought to have contaminated these stored grains and those who ate them would have likely become sick.  In ancient times, the first born Egyptian male was given special privileges that other children were not, such as a second portion of dinner.  These children were given special privileges because they were the heirs to whatever property their fathers owned.  Since they received more food than the rest of their family members, it is likely it would have been enough to make them deathly sick.

Orlando Water Damage 

Sometimes we look into the backs of our closets while we are cleaning them out and we discover an old article of clothing with a fuzzy substance all over it. If you find something like this in the back of your closet, the best thing to do is drop it immediately and go wash your hands. What you were handling was a piece of clothing that has been contaminated with mold and it has been advised to not touch mold spores with your bare hands. This can possibly cause an allergic reaction or just some skin rashes, but either way, there will probably be consequences to deal with.

Most items of clothing that are contaminated with mold can be cleaned and the mold done away with, but most of the time the mold ends up leaving stains. Using bleach to remove the stains can be effective if you are dealing with mold on white clothing, but this is not always the case and chlorine bleach is not effective in killing molds on porous surfaces. You can use a brush to remove the majority of the mold and put a pre-wash spray on it; allow this to soak for about 45 minutes and put it through the washing machine. After this, allow them to dry outside naturally in the sun. Using an artificial source of heat to dry the clothes can set the stain deeper into the fabric and if you are dealing with white clothing, the sun can actually help to bleach the fabric further.

If you are looking to remove the mold and mold stains from something that was made with real leather, you are probably not going to have any luck. Items made out of leather become discolored very easily and mold does a good job of this. They cannot usually be restored after coming into contact with mold.

You can clean off upholstery or curtains that have come into contact with mold using the same method described above and one of the best purchases you can make to keep your home mold free is a vacuum that has a HEPA filter in it. Use this vacuum and its brush attachment to suck up all the mold and its spores; the filter will make sure that the spores are not re-released into the air in your home after being collected.

Article By: Water Damage Restoration Ohio

Your home represents one of the most lucrative investments you will ever make. When choosing foundation repair specialists to repair your home, it is important to have several opinions on the project. While damage may seem obvious, having experts look at the extent of it can help determine what repair options are available and how much it will cost.

Getting multiple opinions ensures that you are choosing the correct foundation repair specialists for the job. If considering the hiring of a contractor, you can have a solid estimate on costs if you get multiple opinions. Rates can vary from contractor to contractor. Foundation repair specialists can charge very cheap prices, or they can charge an overblown rate. By having three or more foundation repair specialists come in and look at the job, you can get a better idea of the correct pricing. Do not simply go with the cheapest specialist; this is an important job, and it requires that the contractor does no sloppy work!

It also helps by determining the extent of the damage. If you go with a cheap contractor that does a shoddy job, then you may risk oversight of other damage. Even the smallest problems can be costly and detrimental to the health of the house. Having more foundation repair specialists ensures that most, if not all, problems related to your foundation get covered.

Ah, the finer things in life. Every once in a while, we all enjoy tasting life on the elegant side. The problem is, we do not get that many chances to. It’s expensive to enjoy the richer life. But with gourmet gift baskets, you can give a little taste of the nice life without breaking the bank. With gourmet gift baskets, it’s not about how much you can fit into a basket, it’s about selection. Choosing only the finest options to include in a gift basket is what gourmet gift baskets are all about. Here are some examples of how you can give the sweet side of life to someone you care about:

Gourmet chocolates: This is one of the most popular. These chocolates are smooth and divine. These are not grocery store checkout line candy bars. They are delicious and special to those who get to eat them.

Gourmet popcorn: Freshly-popped and sometimes flavored, this popcorn makes for a treat that you don’t get to enjoy every day.

Preserves: Grandma would be proud! Fresh preserves are a sweet and wonderful alternative to your standard jelly.

There are others as well: cheeses, nuts, and little candies. Giving gourmet gift baskets is giving a delicious and relaxing time for anyone who wants to sit back and dream about the “good life.”

Once a job offer is made, a lot of people think they have no basis for negotiating but they would be surprised, with the right approach, that they can often secure compensation packages beyond what they thought was possible. A key point to remember is that negotiating more at the start of a job can turn into a substantial amount of increased earnings over the course of several years. Once people achieve an increased level of earnings, they tend to maintain that difference over where they were for several years.

The negotiation process we recommend at ITS is easy to use. Based on our thousands of negotiations, it was carefully developed to be easy to use. It is based on common sense and the art of soft selling, so that you get what you want without offending the employer in any way.

There are five key areas you want to consider:

(1)   The initial offer, can you get it increased by 10% to 30%;

(2)   The responsibilities, can you expand them to a larger job that would pay more;

(3)   A signing bonus, which can be 10% to 30% of the salary in some cases;

(4)   The benefits, is the company willing to extend;

(5)   Stock options, whether they are available, and under what terms.

ITS gives job hunter’s guidance in each of those areas. There is also a lot of information on salary surveys to give you current information on which to base negotiations, and a cost-of-living comparison of various areas for those who are relocating. Senior level job seekers will be especially interested in the discussion of the various types of stock options and grants, exit strategies and severance agreements, and a dozen or so other benefits that can be a significant part of the total compensation package.

ITS offers Personal Marketing Services that goes far beyond Outplacement Career counseling. ITS uses its own unique technology to give job seekers access to as much as 85% of the advertised openings, including those from newspapers, recruiter openings, job boards, employer sites, and trade magazines. It also provides access to the unadvertised job market among employers, recruiters and growth companies.

For additional information: pr@changingcareers.com or contact Tom Mortenson at 800-320-1277.

Article By: ITS 

As far as real estate franchises go, there are lots to choose from. Century 21, Coldwell-Banker, and Prudential are a few of the biggest. The biggest in the Charleston area is definitely Prudential Carolina real estate. They sell more houses than anyone else in the area – condos, single family, apartment, historical homes, restored mansions, plantation homes, even light commercial, restaurant, and retail real estate. I highly recommend checking them out!

One trend in the recent slip in median home prices is easily seen in Charleston. Luxury real estate prices seem to have been untouched by recent declines, as the few “haves” continue to try outbid one another for choice properties. Beachfront, waterfront, near the college, or near the hotels, luxury real estate across the board in Charleston is the bubble that keeps growing. When will it burst? If the past is any indication of the future, the answer is that it probably won’t.

There is one aspect of global warming that’s worth considering when making real estate investments, especially if you live on the eastern coast of North, Central, or South America: namely the warming of the Atlantic. Beach real estate is going to be a more precarious investment because insurance is going to run much higher as water levels continue to rise, owing to the melting ice caps. This means that in Florida, Palm Beach and Miami could be cities protected by levies if no gradual shift inland takes place. It also means that semi-coastal communities like Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, and Atlantic beach will become prime beachfront real estate, making them a good investment now, as long as you don’t have to shell out for the expensive flooding and hurricane insurance premiums paid for beachfront properties.

While half-built condos in Palm Beach, Del Ray, Boca, and Miami have seen drops in asking price of over 30% in many cases, one area where condo prices have held up nicely is Jacksonville. Florida Real Estate is not necessarily all connected, one broker explained to me. The biggest factors in determining prices on new condos are supply and demand, sure, but one the big driver is not the supply built by new builders but the demand shifts caused by demographic changes. In Jacksonville, the economy has grown tremendously as a function of college graduates not wanting to move from this relative young person’s paradise. That translates into a cheap work force, which brings in more employers, which creates a greater demand for decent condo-style housing. This, and not a lack of supply, has been the driver of prices in Jacksonville, and that is why condo prices there will continue to increase.