Meadowlark

I have my house on the market. I got an offer and we are $5,000 apart. I have $2,000 in gift cards for Home Depot I can offer but my real estate agent is not creative enough to figure out how we can offer them to the buyer as part of the deal. I'm guessing any buyer would be happy to get $2,000 to spend as part of the deal. Any suggestions?

We were recently rear ended by a semi while on our way to vacation in Texas. Luckily we were not seriously injured but we were all a little sore and it did take much of the enjoyment out of our vacation. Would it be reasonable to ask the (guilty party's) insurance company to pay us the cost of our vacation? If they say no is there any way to force the issue? Should we expect some "pain and suffering"? After all we did get hit by a huge semi truck.

I am using my girlfriends iPhone. When I clicked on her Craigslist application the previous search details were in there. The search was for Men in our city and also z certain age range. We have a pretty good relationship, have been together over a year and live together. Is this something I should be concerned about? Should I confront her? We did have a moderate argument that night. I also searched her browser history after discovering this and she also looked up the Facebook of an ex and another's court record od divorce. Should I head for the hills or this is not a big deal?

I own a house that I do like and can afford but it's too big for me and is in a great neighborhood but one that resembles a retirement community in terms of the age of residents. I also have a 7 year ARM at 4 percent that I just closed on. (I wish I had 30 years).

I have been considering downgrading to a smaller, less expensive home, in a neighborhood that's more vibrant. I have been seeing shorts sales that are priced very low. My question is should I sell my home to buy a short sale? I have one in mind that is very nice. It was originally assessed for almost the same as my current house. It is now priced at $150,000. I should be able to get $285,000 for mine. What do you think? I would love the new area and save myself $800 each month.

My girlfriend has a shady past employment record. I guess my question is not what can but more what do past employers reveal about employees on a reference check. Is it true most require something to be mailed or faxed to them and that most only disclose when employment started and ended and positions held? The employer in question is a very large corporation. Any way she can do some investigation into what is being said?

I just closed on my house and went for a 7 year ARM. My principal balance is $228,000 right now. I took out the 7 year mortgage because I think there is a good probability I will not be in the home beyond the 7 years. Now I'm a little worried if I do stay I'm going to be in trouble financially and might be forced to sell. Some questions I have are will rates be much higher then? Was this an unwise move? My current income is about $60,000 and in 7 years will likely be about $75,000 or higher.

I bought a game system and 18 games on eBay. 9 games don't work. I put in a dispute with Paypal and just got an email that they didn't decide with me. I guess I should just put in a claim with MasterCard any ideas? I buy alot on eBay ($12,000 in December) but have few claims relative to my purchases.

I bought a game system and games last month on EBay. I spent $260. There were 18 games but 9 did not work. The seller said it's still a deal I should be happy. I put in a dispute and they did nothing for me. I do buy and sell on eBay and spent $12,000 on eBay in December. I have a few other disputes I started but as you can imagine I run across dishonest sellers. Is there anything I can do? Should I start a claim with MasterCard instead?

It says I have to insert into an xbox 360. On the intro screen it says play dvd and the game doesn't show up, I had this problem with another game but found when I installed the hard drive it fixed it. Halo 3 does it whether or not the HD is connected.

I bought a PS3 system that was supposed to have been upgraded to 80 gb. How can I tell? I am reselling it because I don't use it. What should I sell it as a 40 gb? thanks :)

I'm considering purchasing a used arcade machine that has 60 games on it. The cabinet is neat- it is Burger Time which I'm a fan of. The games are ms. Pacman, pacman, asteroids, donkey kong, space invaders, you get the idea. I think this would be very fun to have and $700 is not an incredible amount of money. Is this a good deal? If the screen would go out on it is it easy to do a self repair or is it expensive to have done?

I'm considering taking a vacation to California. Maybe flying into SF, visiting Yosemite, Santa Cruz, Monterey and maybe Fresno (making a loop driving by car). Is Fresno a worthwhile visit? Any other areas in the vicinity worth consideration?

Just curious. When you take your piggy bank into a bank what happens to the coins? Sometimes the coins are worn or not the cleanest. Are they inspected and cleaned somewhere before being put back into circulation? If so where is this done? By machine?

I rolled over a couple of IRA's to Roths in 2008. One was done at Fidelity and the other at Vanguard. Vanguard sent a 1099 while Fidelity only a 5498. My tax guy says that he needs a 1099 from Fidelity. I called Fidelity and they told me that a 5498 is all they have. The 5498 says it is for informational purposes only. Does this make any sense that Fidelity doesn't offer a 1099? What should I do?

I just bought a Nintendo Wii game. The game is Zelda Twilight Princess. It says on the on-screen icon that it is a demo version. What does this mean?

I sell about 100 items per week on Ebay and was wondering if it make sense to buy the sticker paper so I'm not constantly having to cut the labels out and tape them to my packages. If you are an Ebay seller do you use these and if so where is the least expensive place to pick some up?

What is te best way to color treat a spot on this leather sofa? After shave was used to remove pen markings unfortunately it removed the color and a dime-sized white spot is there. They have used shoe polish but said it comes off. What is the best way to cover up this imperfection?

I payed for and printed a label for UPS shipping off of Ebay. Problem is that I gave the package to the post office. What will happen now?

I used to be able to post on CL using my curve and now I can't because I'm asked to enter a couple of words (that normally appear in a box). Problem is the words don't appear on my BB. Is there a way around this? Can I change my BB's setting so the words will appear?