Red Flags When Buying Online Health Insurance

In the past, without the Internet, everything is done via the telephone or person-to-person meeting. If you need to buy an accessory for your car, you will have to drive to the car accessories store and make the purchase. If you are hungry you need to go to the restaurant or fast food chain to order and get your food. If you need to meet with a client overseas, you will have to book a flight to go to that country.That was in the past. Today, many thanks to the Internet, everything is done online. For anything you need, an online store is offering and you don’t have to get up from your chair to do that. All it takes is a click of the button on your computer screen. Even buying health insurance plan for yourself or your family can be done online. The information available online is enormous and there are hundreds of that offer online health insurance. But buying health insurance cannot be compared to other products offered online; it is a serious matter and as such it requires providing some personal information through the website to facilitate the processing of your request for quote or application.While buying online health insurance can be convenient and fast, there are some things you need to watch out for. You should be able to detect red-flag signs before you get to the stage of finally making the purchase. Check the list below:1. Be doubtful about the reputation of any website that does not post their physical address and contact details. With such information posted on their site, you can physically inspect the office or address instead of just calling the phone. Sites that don’t provide these details should be avoided.2. All selling agents – whether online or offline will be required by law to employ registered insurance agents to sell these services in whichever manner. If an insurer’s agent declines to give their full details, it’s a warning bell. With their full details you will be able to check with the licensing department if he or she is indeed a licensed agent.3. Any website should be able to provide you with full details on the coverage and what are not covered by the plan that you are planning to buy. If the insurer cannot provide you with such details, end the transaction.4. Reputable online insurance providers will enforce strict confidentiality with respect to any personal information or detail you are providing them relevant to your application. It is important that you read their privacy policy to see their procedures and protocols upon receipt of the confidential information. Any website that does not have the icon (lock symbol) or other indicators of security on their webpage should be avoided. They should place high priority on the security of information passed to them.5. You should receive the original insurance policy and not just the printed form even if you have purchased an online health insurance. The Internet is just a tool used for the initial sales transactions. All the legal documents that need to be signed should be original and carries the insurer’s company seal with the company’s authorized signature. Be sure to check all the documents carefully to make sure they are legitimate documents from the insurer.It may be daunting and a little intimidating when you shop for health insurance online but it’s the easiest and fastest way for you to collect the information, assistance and selection you need. You just need to be observant and extra careful when dealing with just the screen of your desktop.

Poker Finance – An Ocean of Ideas on Poker to Make Money

Poker is a very popular game among the card players. Since long it has been played by people only as a game but in recent times, it has got monetary values when played professionally. Poker finance basically talks about the monetary aspects of poker. There are many online options to generate poker finance and hence bonuses. Online options can directly offer bonuses or take you to famous online poker rooms.These online finance options offer many bonus packages which can be used to earn further. Out of so many choices offered, you can select the best possible one that suits your style of play, risk quotient and proficiency level. Some of these packages doled out by finance sites are generous enough to get hefty earnings. There are also options of getting add-on bonuses while you play the game, if you intend to do so. This add-on along with your earnings from the game and bonuses go a long way in elevating your bankroll.Apart from a wide range of bonus options, these online finance sites have other good facilities such as, you can use them 24*7, they have experienced personals who can give trust worthy help while you play, staff who can suggest ways to correct your gaming strategies, etc. Also these sites have proper payment gateways which can be relied upon.Here you can build communities and can invite people sharing the same interests. You can earn money through this community building and can always grow the size of the group by referring it to friends. There are also privileges for special monthly packages and promotions. Different competitions are also organized where people make big checks when they win in an event such as gala in World Series of Poker.These online finance options have made internet poker a billion dollar industry which started in a very small concept. Over a period of time, various innovations like the concept of bonuses have put this business on a role.

Finding Business Loans Online – Financing As Close As Your Fingertips

The Internet is the best place for the consumer to find extensive availability of loans, make an informed decision and apply without leaving their home or office. In the past, a prospective business owner had to physically go to a financial institution in person to apply for loans. At the bank or lending institution, they were given a sheaf of papers to complete and often wasted valuable time waiting around bank approval. This process was boring, time inefficient and daunting. Enter the better way: loans online. Courtesy of the Internet, the business entrepreneur can sit at home and go through the entire loan application process online, at any time of day or night. The consumer is offered choices and given the ability to check and compare multiple loan offers.There are various options to financing a small business, which is the purpose of this article, to assist in researching and securing loans conveniently. Depending on the development stage of your small-business idea, you will have different financing requirements than other small businesses.Can you create and customize a loan to suit your needs? One of the answers can be found at a website representing a company called simply Business Finance. This site can help you determine what specific sources of financing are needed, and how the requirements are related to the state of your small business both financially and growth-wise. Business Finance does give a variety of descriptions on the different classes of financing available for small businesses. This enables the loan applicant to better categorize the sort of options for which to apply. Serving as an intermediary for roughly 400 lenders, this website also provides a tool to assist in determining the amount of money you might need to borrow. Lenders will vary as far as loan requirements, but this website offers a description of lending requirements. Not your only source, but one of the best, this website has been focused upon creating opportunities in this relatively new market.The second company that is also greatly beneficial in helping to shop and create financing packages is supported by America One Unsecured Loans. This company specializes in start-up and fast-track loans. A small business entrepreneur seeking money in the form of an unsecured loan can find this an indispensable source to assist with financing needs. At America One, they seem to understand just how frustrating it is to find financing and complete a loan in today’s economic environment. Their specialty product is a signature loan that can be used for any purpose, with no collateral required. Approval is based upon current credit standing.This online resource does offer a very fast turnaround time in regard to approval or denial so that if your need is time-sensitive, an answer is fairly immediate. The turnaround time as listed on the website is one to three days. Once approved, this America One Unsecured Loan can be in the form of unsecured debt, and collateral such as equity in a home may not be needed.Remember that when shopping for small-business loans online, make sure that the financing fits your business requirements and plans for future development.

How Affordable Are Designer Mens Clothes

Designer mens clothes have gained more and more popularity over the last few years. Mens clothes are no longer just plain and uninteresting as they had been before. They come in a wider variety of colours and styles which make them more appealing. Shirts, jackets, suits and many other clothes worn by men can now be seen on runways on male models just as is the case with clothes worn by women. Many men have been keeping away from designer clothes for fear that they cannot afford them but this has since changed for the better.Designer clothes for men are more affordable now for very many reasons.First is the fact that there are many designers now than there were in earlier years. Just like in any industry, the existence of many dealers results in greater competition. A lot of competition leads to reduction in prices in order to increase sales. Many fashion designers now have stores in which they target the average earning population. In these stores they have reduced prices and this boosts their sales in the long run.When looking for designer mens clothes you must be aware of the fact that certain clothes are meant to be worn at certain functions or places. You do not want to attend an office meeting in casual clothes such as a t-shirt and jeans. If you are not sure what to buy or how to pair up your clothes, you can enlist the services of a stylist or just ask for help at the store when you go in to buy the clothes. It is not a bad idea to be a little more adventurous in your choice of clothes and the colours you prefer but be sure that whatever you buy makes you feel comfortable yet still unique.Clothes can either make or break you. Designer mens clothes have the ability to greatly boost your self-esteem levels and leave you feeling very confident. This can work very well for you especially if you have an important meeting where you have to be on top of your game or if you are meeting a girl out on a date and you would like to impress her. Just the knowledge that you are well groomed will increase your confidence levels. You must be careful though not to buy fake designer clothes. There are always replicas out on the market and they are never as good as the real deal. To prevent this from happening, always try to purchase mens designer clothes from the designer shops.

Skin Care Shouldn’t Have To Be Difficult – Follow These Simple Tips

Do you have problems with taking care of your skin? Do you feel like you have tried everything possible? You are not the only one. Many people are in the same position. That is why the following article was written– to give people with skin care problems some valuable advice.When finishing up your skin care routine find the perfect toner for your skin. It will help tighten your skin and get rid of any dirt or makeup that you may have missed during washing. In place of the toner once a week you should try using a face mask which will deep clean your pores.If you’re still looking for the perfect toner, consider using tea tree oil in your skin care routine. A little tea tree oil mixed with water in a water mist bottle makes for a lovely toner. Like any skin care item, take care to keep it out of your eyes.If you need to use skin care products, use them on a consistent basis. Frequent use will give your favorite skin care products time to achieve the desired effect. If you need a reminder to perform your skin care regiment diligently, keep your products in plain sight. Keep these products near your nightstand for application before you go to bed.To keep skin from becoming dry in the fall and winter, moisturize every single day after your bath or shower. This is the best time to take care of this part of your daily skin care routine because it takes advantage of the moisture that has been absorbed by the skin during bathing.Don’t use germicidal soaps, extremely hot water, or intense scrubs to avoid dry leg skin. Soaps of a germicidal nature tend to remove an abundance of the natural oil found in skin. If you scrub your skin with hot water, the protective outer layout will become damaged. Use beauty soap with warm water and gentle rubbing to avoid dry skin on your legs.To keep your skin looking its best, reduce stress and anxiety as part of your skin care routine. Taking steps to reduce and control stress in your daily life can help your skin look alive instead of tired and grey. Uncontrolled stress short circuits your skin’s natural ability to repair daily damage and often interferes with your ability to get the sleep you need for fresh looking skin.Any skin care routine can be made more effective with the addition of adequate restful sleep every night. Your overall skin quality is adversely affected by the stress to your system caused by lack of sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep is the one highly effective beauty treatment for your skin that is absolutely free.Make sure that your skin care routine involves the application of a foot lotion. Particularly in the winter months, your feet need a strong glycerine based lotion that will keep them from getting too dry. Also exfoliate every once in a while to take off your dead skin; that will help the foot lotion work a little better.To improve your skin care routine, give yourself a dry brush exfoliation with a natural bristle brush every morning or evening before you shower. This will get rid of dead skin cells and help your skin to detoxify, giving your skin a healthier, better appearance. It will also decrease puffiness, and increase blood circulation.As was mentioned in the beginning of this article, many people feel like they have tried everything they can to improve and take care of their skin. The purpose of the above article is to help people in this exact situation. Take this advice, and you will be on the road to perfect skin in no time.

What You Get From Online Pharmacies

Drug consumers now have 2 choices in purchasing their health treatments. The traditional and customary means is ordering from brick and mortar medicine pharmacies. These pharmacies not only entail spending for the drugs but also for the traveling charges. Individuals on a tight budget can opt for cheaper costs offered in online drug stores. The Internet based pharmacies are suitable for individuals] requiring maintenance treatment or those who live in far away areas. Web pharmacies also provide inexpensive bulk discounts. Large families can benefit and purchase at large orders from these Internet pharmacies.Relevance of Prescribed Notes
Like local pharmacies, the medicines you purchase must be approved by a doctor prescription ensures your health and future well being. Without the prescribed note, the pharmacy will not deliver your order. The unreliable online pharmaceuticals don’t need a prescribed note. With a doctor’s advice, you can know better the medicine’s chemical reactions and request for an exact brand name from the pharmacy. If your state can be remedied using a generic alternative, most online pharmacies offer lower prices for generic drugs. Unlike offline drug stores that can run out of supply, the online pharmacies will have them readily available. The pharmacy site also enables you to view all their offered medications. You do not have to face a long line just to ask a sales person if they have your drug.Picking the Web Pharmaceutical
When limiting your web pharmaceutical options, opt for the ones with a wide range of medicines. The top drug stores categorize their supplies based on their function. A comprehensive pharmacy site includes weight reduction medicines, pain killers, allergy medicines, and so on.Apart from the supply list, the online drug store should post their license. They must have approval from the FDA and a state pharmacy license. Without these approvals, the drugs aren’t being watched over and rechecked for apt processing. Review websites are also accessible for your referral. These websites come from testimonies of actual customers. Another useful source are forums of online pharmacy consumers.Confirmation Indicators of the Pharmacy
Check the website as well for an existing office address and contact number. Call the number to see if a business agent answers. Look through the web for the street address and check if it is a real place. If you gain nonexistent results, clearly it is a fake company.The drug store must always guarantee that the details you transmit are kept private. Look out for a lock key or read the legal terms to understand where your credit card or payment info is going. Your email should also be be confidential because you will end up with spam about Viagra or scam diet medicines.If the online pharmacy has trusted qualities, you’ll be able to save more money ordering from that site. Implement quality research to ensure you opt for a pharmacy that carries out quality services. The hours you spend will be an investment to your body’s long-term future. If you still think they’re not a practical choice, weight its disadvantages over the negatives of local pharmacies.

Losing Large Amounts Of Weight Through A Nutritional And Healthy Diet Plan

Are you one of the thousands upon thousands of people who are 60, 80, or 100 pounds overweight, and have tried diet after diet only to discover they didn’t work?Have you stuck to a diet and lost 10 or 20 pounds only to find that once the diet ended, you gained all your weight back and more?If so, you are definitely not alone. In fact, if you are one of the people who medical experts refer to as obese, chances are that a traditional diet isn’t going to work for you, and certainly the latest ‘fad’ diet isn’t going to work.By focusing on changing your eating habits to include more nutritional and healthy foods, rather than on weight loss and calorie counting, will help you to lose much more weight that any so called “Diet”The Problem With DietsThe main problem with diets is that they are designed for quick short term weight loss. This means that by their very nature they radically cut calories, and in doing so cut many of the vitamins and nutrients your body needs to maintain good health.While this may have little effect on those looking to only lose 5 or 10 pounds, for anyone who tries dieting long-term, they experience unrelenting hunger pangs, food cravings, and even begin to feel weak and more unhealthy than ever before. In addition, many of these diets end up robbing you of energy and make you feel depressed.And all of this leads to quitting the diet, possibly gaining even more weight back, while feeling that you have failed once again.Don’t Focus On Weight Loss Focus On Eating HealthyRather than focusing on weight loss, start focusing on eating more nutritional and healthy foods. By shifting your focus you are improving your overall health, while ‘shedding’ those pounds for good. Eating more nutritionally isn’t a diet, it is a lifestyle change that not only helps you lose weight, but makes you feel and look better from the inside out.Start By Learning All You Can About NutritionMost of us think that we know all about good nutrition, but in fact we really know little at all. For example, most people believe that low fat food is better for you than their fattier counterparts. Why? Because this is what we have been told.However, low fat food is often worse for you than the full fat versions. Take a look at the label on whole milk, or cheese, and then compare the low fat versions of these products.The low fat version may contain less fat, but they are extremely high in sodium that not only adds water weight, but causes a variety of health problems as well – and the processed low fat food products are notorious for replacing some of the fat with high fructose corn syrup so they can be called ‘low fat’ and ‘sugar free’.Additionally, you also need to learn how to prepare foods so they keep more of their nutritional value. Fresh raw fruits and vegetables are more healthy than cooked, and micro-waving robs almost all foods of their nutrients. Once you have learned more about nutrition, you can then also look for foods that are considered to be fat burning or anti-inflammatory, as well as nutritional.Why You Lose Weight With Nutritionally Sound FoodsOne of the reasons you lose weight when eating nutritionally sound foods is because many of these foods are naturally lower in calories. This means that you can actually eat more actual food and still consume less calories.And this is especially the case when comparing to foods like pasta, bread, cereal, and other high calorie processed foods that are often full of sugar – none of these are nutrient rich and healthy, and you can’t lose weight with ‘nutritionally empty’ foods.When you eat nutrient dense foods, you are also giving your body what it needs to function properly. This results in feeling more sated, so you are less hungry and have fewer cravings for your problem foods. And all of this results in eating less.Eating foods that are high in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients can help you feel better overall. When you feel healthier you have more natural energy – which makes it easy for you to increase your activity levels, which helps to burn off even more calories that results in more weight loss. And the beat goes on!Best of all you,can begin making small changes in your diet to include more nutritional foods, and then add more and more of these foods as you go along. This will give your body time to adjust to your new way of eating, while allowing you to change your diet in a manner that doesn’t send your body into shock and starvation mode.And whatever you do, don’t try to lose weight by fasting or eating ridiculously low amounts of calories. Each small healthy change you make, will result in more weight loss, and you can consistently meet your weight loss goals in a way that is healthy and will enable you to keep the weight off.

What Magic Happens When A Business Marketing Plan Comes Together?

For most business owners the key to success lies in a solid marketing plan with strong marketing tactics.A marketing plan is a blueprint that outlines a company’ overall marketing efforts.There are a ton of plan templates readily available on the internet.Taking advantage of these plan templates and marketing calendars can help determine the success or failure of your business in 2015Now, what happens when a marketing plan comes together?1. You will discover who your best most important audience is and what your clients want from youHopefully you are creating and offering products and services with a specific target audience in mind.However, you may find that clients, customers and patients other than your targeted audience will also been able to benefit from what you have to offer.Understanding who your audience is a key component in marketing, sales and improving your services and/or products.2. Increases awareness of your companyMost people won’t pay any attention to your company, unless they need you. They only care about themselves, it human nature.A marketing plan enables you to formulate a way to help future clients see the benefits of using your product or service. When done right, this establishes your credibility in the marketplace and hopefully solidifies your business as a reliable source.3. You will be prepared. When you have a good marketing strategy you’ll be surprised at how fast your company will be able to respond to unexpected marketing and developments from your competition.A well-written plan that covers all bases will include a projection on possible threats and detailed ways you can respond or capitalize off them. 4. Obtaining FinanceCompanies, including small businesses often need to acquire extra financing.A well-thought out business plan along with detailed marketing is evidence of good planning which could be extremely helpful in obtaining loans.Without a solid business plan and marketing strategy, even the most profitable business would have a difficult time getting financing. Free sample marketing plans are readily available online, they can serve as good examples while saving you time creating your documents.5. Save MoneyOne of the biggest benefits of a marketing strategy that your business is more likely to save money.The average marketing plan includes a set budget that will be used in your marketing efforts for the year.Yes, by outline your marketing plans, and specifying how much money is going to be used to support various marketing efforts it helps your company save a lot of money on unplanned marketing campaigns.If you and your team hasn’t sat down to develop a marketing plan for the year, it’s time to do so now.Start off with a marketing template to help outline your company’s marketing strategies the expand from there.There are so many benefits from having a marketing plan that it would be insane to start 2015 without one.

A Guide to Commercial Lighting Fixtures

Although incandescent lamps are more frequently used in residential lighting applications, some commercial lighting fixtures also used this technology. Incandescent lamps pass current through a filament, which causes the filament to give off light. Because they are relatively short lived, incandescents are used mostly as decorative commercial lighting fixtures. Their ability to render warm colors effectively without ballast makes them well suited to this application, and the enormous variety of bulb designs make them highly soft after source of any type of accent lighting or decorum based commercial lighting design.Fluorescent Lighting Fixtures
Fluorescent lamps are used extensively in commercial lighting fixtures for a number of reasons. First and foremost of these reasons is their ability to use less power than other commercial lighting fixtures, making them very cost effective from an energy conservation perspective. Fluorescent bulbs also produce a very bright light that is evenly distributed, making them ideal commercial warehouse lighting fixtures, canopy lights, security lights, in interior retail lights in discount stores where high levels of general lighting help psychologically motivate larger bulk purchases of discount merchandise.Fluorescent bulbs produce light by activating phosphors on the interior of the bulb using ultraviolet energy generated by a mercury arc. Ballast helps start and operate the fluorescent lamps by regulating electron flow through the gaseous arc. Trends in fluorescent technology have made them more compact, increasing lumens per watt efficiency as high as 100 lumens per watt, and reducing the amount of toxic mercury within the bulbs interior. Fluorescent commercial lighting fixtures are best deployed underneath building eaves (as in the case of canopy lights), near loading docks, in wall packs on the sides of buildings, or as large grocery store or warehouse lights. Placing them too far out into open spaces tends to diffuse their light output and diminish their intensity.High Intensity Discharge (HID) Commercial Lighting Fixtures
HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. It refers to a technology where light is produced by a gaseous arc discharge using a variety of elements. Typical elements include mercury vapor, metal halide, and high pressure sodium. The arc tube within an HID lamp will contain one or more of such elements, and when current passes between the electrodes at either end of the tube, the current creates an arc that generates visible light.HID lamps feature the highest efficiency in lumens per watt output and also feature a greater level of lighting control. They also last longer than other commercial lighting fixtures, making them a wise investment for a company on a Spartan budget that cannot afford to continually replace equipment. High intensity discharge sources include mercury vapor, metal halide, and high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. Light is produced in HID and low pressure sodium (LPS) sources through a gaseous arc discharge using a variety of elements. Each HID lamp consists of an arc tube which contains certain elements or mixtures of elements which, when an arc is created between the electrodes at each end, gasify and generate visible radiation.Light Sources and Lamp CharacteristicsMercury Vapor (MV) Lighting Fixtures
Mercury vapor lights were the first HID commercial lighting fixtures developed. They were designed originally to meet a rising demand for a very compact, high output, and energy efficient source of light. They are used extensively in a number of landscape lighting applications, being commonly deployed as tree lights in high-end commercial outdoor lighting systems. In other applications they have proven somewhat less effective duo to their inferior color rendering abilities, although this has improved to a certain extent over the years by phosphor coated interior bulb walls.The life of mercury vapor lamps is good, averaging 24,000 hours for larger wattage lamps. However, because the output diminishes so greatly over time, economical operational life is often much shorter. Efficacy ranges from 30 to 60 lumens per watt, with the higher wattages being more efficacious than the lower wattages.As with other HID lamps, the starting of a mercury vapor lamp is not immediate. Starting time is short, though, taking 4-7 minutes to achieve maximum output depending upon the ambient temperature.High Pressure Sodium (HPS) Light Fixtures
High Pressure Sodium (HPS) commercial lighting fixtures gained huge popularity in the 1970s to meet the needs of a powerful, yet super efficient, source of HID lighting. Lumens per watt output in an HPS lamp can be as high as 140 lumens per watt, approximately 7 times the luminance as incandescent lamps and twice that of MV or Fluorescent. They also last for approximately 24,000 hours—the longest lamp light on the market.The problem with HPS commercial lighting fixtures has always been the quality of light they create. HPS lamps give off a yellowish or orange-tinted color and are not acceptable light sources for situations where illuminating a brand, architectural keynote, or any type of ornate exterior landscaping requires a high level of color rendering. For the most part, they are used in applications such as commercial parking garage lighting, warehouse lighting, and certain outdoor applications such as security flood lighting.Metal Halide (MH Lighting Fixtures
Metal Halide (MH) commercial lighting fixtures are fast becoming the preferred source of HID lighting in most commercial environments. This is because they produce a very bright white light that nearly equivalent to daylight in its color rendering ability. The variety of applications is significant as a result, ranging from decorative street lighting, commercial parking lot lighting, car lot lighting, outdoor landscape lighting, architectural lighting, security lighting, and general site lighting. Traditionally, their biggest drawback has been their short lamp life, only 7,500 hours on the average.Newer designs in Metal Halide commercial lighting fixtures include pulse start technology and ceramic metal halide design. These improvements have increased lumens per watt efficiency, control of the light itself through superior dimmability, better stability of color rendering, longer lamp life, and shorter start time.Unfortunately, recent legislation has called for the phase out of certain standard forms of MH commercial lighting fixtures due to their use of incendiary elements that fall under the classification of greenhouse gas sources. This in turn paves the way for the most sophisticated lighting ever developed on our world, and quite possibly, the singular source of lighting used both commercially and residentially in the very near future: LED commercial lighting fixtures.LED Commercial Lighting Fixtures
As technology improves, the ability to create truly white LED light continues to evolve. LED commercial lighting fixtures are featuring higher lumens per watt efficiencies than their initial prototypes initially offered. This has opened the door for a number of architectural lighting and site lighting applications that were previously the exclusive domain of HID commercial lighting fixtures.We are also seeing an upsurge in the use of led commercial lighting fixtures in street and roadway lighting, where a number of municipalities in the United States and Europe have reported some very promising findings in regards to both power cost reduction and the overall quality of street lighting itself.Look for quarterly leaps and bounds in the engineering gains made by LED commercial lighting fixture manufacturers.

Trust Deed Investors: One Way to Get Investment Income in a Low Return Environment

It is most generally acknowledged that the person’s early years such as the twenties is the best time to start investing. After all, you have all of life ahead to invest money which is why so many books on investment – most actually – are geared towards the twenties. Fewer are towards the thirties, and even fewer towards the forties and retirement. This may be partly why trust deed investing is so appealing. In today’s low-return low-interest-rate environment, trust deed investing is one of the few investment options that can help you substantially increase the amount of your monthly income. And little expense is involved. (Although risk is another matter).What is trust deed investment?Trust deeds are like a private real estate loan. If you’re a real estate entrepreneur (for instance) who wants to snap a fast loan to rehab a piece of property in order to sell at a profit, trust deed investors may be your best choice. They’d give you the loan in a blink’s eye far faster than the bank where it takes drawn out negotiations and filing of hefty tomes until you get that loan. (If at all). The average amount of time is 60 days. Some entrepreneurs cannot wait that long. They need to snap that deal and that’s where the trust deed investor comes in handy. He forks over your required funds within that same week, sometimes that same day at 1/3rd of the paperwork and nil of the stress. The downside is that the borrower pays a much higher rate than he might for a mortgage, typically 8% to 12% (since the investor is taking more of a risk).How does it work?The process is such that the buyer works through a third-party loan originator who underwrites and facilitates the loan for one year. Schedules can be restructured, but generally the borrower makes interest-only payments each month and a balloon payment of the principal once the loan reaches its maturity.So let’s say you’re the investor and you fund 250,000 at 10% APR, you’ll either receive 12 interest payments of $2,083 each, totaling $25,000, and at the end of the year, get back your $250,000. Or, in the worst case scenario, you pocket the defaulting borrower’s land.Other things you’ll want to know…There’s no set minimum for investing in a single trust deed. They can be fractionalized – that is, divided into several portions – but loan originators generally prefer to deal with one investor per loan.Finding trust deeds to invest in can be difficult. Your best bet may be to find an experienced broker or advisor with a history of success. These have likely established relationships with originators and you can work through them. If you don’t want to hunt these deals down, you might invest in a trust deed fund run by a professional manager. These funds currently pay between 8% and 11% per year and have minimum investment amounts that start around $50,000.To acquire credibility, you may want to consider running for SEC licensing.Pluses of investing in trust deedsThe pluses are particularly topical now with the Fed hiking its interest rates and maybe hiking them still higher. Trust deed investments protect you from the shenanigans for rising rates because they’re held to maturity and have short durations. You can also use any sort of cash to invest. You automatically have the right to foreclose on any property when the borrower has defaulted on the loan. Trust deed investing can open the door to other investment opportunities. It also offers a return on investment that comes in at higher than average; expect a typical return of 9 to 14 percent. And, if managed well, this type of investing is secure. This is because it has a guaranteed yield.Minuses of investing in trust deedsThe obvious minus is the very likely possibility of your investment defaulting, namely the borrower not paying you back. This happens to approximately 85 % of private money lenders at some time in their lives, some more than others. Redfin, a residential real estate company that provides web-based real estate database and brokerage services, predicts that it is going to happen to many more this coming year when housing prices are going to lurch beyond restraintManaging risk…How can you prevent losing your money? Experts strongly advise lenders to research client’s credit history and trustworthiness. They also recommend that you research the value of the client’s property and the extraneous market environment to the point that you physically investigate the building yourself. If you’re not up to this, consider hiring an advisor with experience in this market. Before you invest, analyze a fund’s portfolio and the loan loss reserves. As with individual trust deeds, you may want to have a professional do this.In short…NerdWallet, one of the leading advisory websites on investments has this to say: If you exercise due caution, trust deed investments can be a great income generator at a time when investments that produce good returns are few and far between.You may want to consider it.