If you own a home, you own an asset. In fact, it’s probably the largest asset you possess, which typically means that if you want to change homes you’ll need to sell your current house. After all, most of your cash is probably locked up in home equity, and your only options for accessing that are to borrow against it or sell.

But selling a house can be a lengthy process. If you desperately need to get your money out of a home—whether it’s to fund a new home purchase or to deal with some other financial challenge—you might be tempted to sell to an “instant buyer” or iBuyer. An iBuyer is a company that uses algorithms and other technologies to quickly estimate your home’s value and craft an offer on the property, usually within a day. You might recall that real estate site Zillow got itself into a lot of trouble when its iBuyer division went off the rails a few years ago. That debacle tamped down enthusiasm for iBuyers, but they still exist, and you can still sell your home to one. But you probably shouldn’t.

Advantages of iBuyers

So why would someone sell their house to a faceless corporation instead of some nice family that writes you warm letters about their future happiness in your home? The main advantage of selling to an iBuyer is speed: Instead of waiting weeks or months for an offer to come in (the average time it takes to sell a house is close to two months), you receive an offer within hours after filling out a form on their website. And iBuyers also typically close on the deal more quickly than traditional transactions.

So if the speed with which you’re paid is your absolute top priority, an iBuyer might make sense. iBuyers also work to make the whole process easy, so if you simply don’t have the bandwidth to handle the stress of selling your house, it can be tempting to click a few buttons and just let someone else determine everything. But you still probably shouldn’t.

Unreliable estimates

The first reason you shouldn’t use an iBuyer is because they will definitely boil that frog when it comes to the sale price. Once you fill out all the forms on their site, they will send you that instant offer based on their algorithm. Except that’s not a final offer. If you like it, they’ll conduct a physical inspection of your home, and if they decide it needs any repairs or their algo missed something, they will reduce the offer accordingly based on the estimated costs of those repairs.

And those estimates can be way off, reducing your profit on the sale—some iBuyers have even been fined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for overcharging on repairs in order to reduce the sale price of properties.

Lowball prices, highball fees

And something else about the offer you’ll get from an iBuyer: It will almost certainly be less than what you could sell the house for with a little more patience. iBuyers underpay about 10-15% on average for the homes they purchase. You could think of that as a convenience fee for the speed and ease of the transaction, but that’s a significant chunk of cash that could be in your pocket instead of the iBuyer’s.

Using an iBuyer without a real estate agent also means you’re not paying a traditional Realtor fee, which is typically about 6% of the transaction. Instead, you pay an iBuyer a set of fees for their services, which in many cases can be equal to or even higher than a Realtor’s fees. And foregoing an agent when selling your house means you don’t have a local market expert to advise you, and you’ll have to rely totally on the iBuyer’s information. And if you do decide to use an agent while working with an iBuyer, now you’re paying at least twice the fees to sell your home.

Unless you absolutely must sell your home as quickly as possible, an iBuyer is always going to be an inferior choice. You’ll probably get a low price for your home, you won’t get any advice from a professional, and you’ll likely wind up paying the same fees—or more—as you would have if you’d gone the traditional route. If you can stand the waiting, avoid the iBuyers.

Source: LifeHacker – Why Selling Your Home to an iBuyer Is Almost Always a Bad Idea

When you hear someone described as a “serial dater,” you might assume they’re constantly in long-term relationships, never leaving themselves time in-between a breakup and the start of a new relationship to be single and enjoy their own company. As it turns out, the opposite is true: A serial dater is someone who loves the thrill of dating, but isn’t into commitment. At all.

Depending on what you want out of your relationships, you’re probably interested in finding out if the person you’re seeing is a serial dater—or maybe even if you’re one yourself. Here are the signs to watch for.

What is a serial dater?

First, let’s nail down this definition. I spoke to Matt Lachman, a certified sex therapist and owner of Cleveland Sex Therapy, to find out what exactly makes someone a “serial dater.” As he describes it, a serial dater is, “someone whose main goal of dating is to not enter a serious relationship,” but instead, “focus on the enjoyment and thrill that comes with dating.” The opposite of this would be a “serial monogamist,” or a person “who jumps from one serious, committed relationship to another with no real casual dating in between.”

Basically, serial daters are all about the experience of dating. They like the fun parts, the “honeymoon phase” stuff. They like getting to know people, going out on novel dates, the rush of all that newness—but not necessarily what comes afterward: the harder work of building a longer-term relationship. Pointedly, committing and settling into a routine aren’t their goals.

Recognize the signs of serial dating

If your goals are to date long-term, you might want to avoid serial daters, or at least know what you’re getting into with one, so you don’t get attached to the dream of a future they may not want to chase with you.

According to Lachman, signs that someone is a serial dater include a history of short relationships, a demonstrated fear of commitment, inauthentic communication, overpromising and underdelivering, speaking in a “toxic” way about past partners, and an overabundance of big gestures early on in the relationship. They may also show signs of getting bored or attention-seeking after a few months.

He adds that in heterosexual relationships especially, “potentially trying to sleep together too quickly” can also be a sign you’re dealing with a serial dater, but it’s not an iron clad one, and that can also a good way to determine your sexual compatibility. He recommends gauging your own comfort level, and considering the implications if you feel too pressured to do it. If you’re both feeling the sexual energy early on, go for it. If it feels like one of you wants to rush into physicality just to hurry up and get there, pause and consider whether that’s a sign of serial dating behavior.

Is there anything wrong with being a serial dater?

After reading through all these signs, you might worry the person you’re dating is a serial dater who may not want to commit. Or maybe you recognize these signs within yourself. That can be scary, since so much of the published content on the topic paints serial daters as nasty, unserious people. But the reality much more nuanced than that. Serial dating isn’t inherently bad.

“Most articles you read will talk about how to avoid this kind of person and that they are toxic,” says Lachman. “In reality, one of the main points of dating is to find a connection with someone, either for one date, a lifetime, or somewhere in between.”

Serial dating is problematic when one person is promising another a reality or future that they can’t really envision for themselves—in essence, leading them on. It can also be an issue for the serial dater themselves; Lachman cautions that serial dating “limits them from engaging in vulnerability, which is crucial for success in any relationship.” But that said, if you both go into the relationship knowing it’s a short-term fling (and feeling good about that fact), that can be perfectly OK.

What can you do if you’re dating a serial dater (or are one)?

It’s fine to casually date, if that’s what both parties want. In fact, it’s fun! But if one person wants a long-term commitment and the other is focused on a serial dating lifestyle, there will be friction. Lachman advocates for using an individualistic perspective to analyze your relationship goals. Why do you want to be in one? What are you getting out of it? How is the other person adding to your life?

Ask yourself those questions before you make any decisions about your relationship. If you are getting what you want from the relationship, there’s no need to toss it away just because the other person may not want to commit, but if that’s what you need, communicate clearly and honestly—and accept it if they’re not down. And if you feel like you’ve inadvertently wound up with a serial dater, realize it’s not personal; they’re just ahead of you in pursuing that individualistic approach, but “unfortunately, they tend to do this in an inauthentic, secretive way that isn’t open or honest,” Lachman says.

ANd if it’s you who is exhibiting serial dating behavior, consider what you value about relationships and why (and whether) you want to change. Lachman notes that sometimes, a fear of being vulnerable prevents people from changing, so consider where you learned this behavior, and what you’re getting out of practicing it. Embrace vulnerability by being open to experiencing it, reading books or listening to podcasts focused on being emotionally open in your relationships, or just talk to others about how you feel. And, of course, you can always seek help from a therapist if you feel the need to. Maybe you’re totally OK with being a serial dater—if so, great. Just make sure your partners know that, and feel the same way.

Source: LifeHacker – How to Spot a Serial Dater (and What to Do If It’s You)

My love for grocery store croissants has been well-documented. While they lack the air structure of those you’d find at a Parisian bakery, they’re delightfully soft and greasy, and I don’t feel bad if they go a little stale. I have mitigation strategies, some of which are more even more delicious than a plain croissant. I’ll usually make croutons or croissant brittle, but on one recent night, I decided to use a stale croissant to make cinnamon-sugar toast, frying it in ghee to give it heaps of texture and flavor.

This preparation, which doesn’t really have a name, lives in between fried cinnamon-sugar toast and the aforementioned croissant brittle. The ghee gives the cinnamon and sugar something to stick to, and when fried, the sweet, aromatic mixture caramelizes on the thin, flaky layers of the pastry, effectively candying them. It’s divine, and so easy to make, even a wildly high person could do it. (Not that I know anything about that.)

I like using ghee because it doesn’t brown like butter. This allows you to track the state of the sugar a little easier, because you won’t have to worry about confusing browned milk solids with caramelized sugar bits. You can use butter, of course; it will still taste good, though I recommend dropping the heat down a little so the butter doesn’t burn before the sugar caramelizes. Enjoy these crispy beauties with a little jam, a scoop of ice cream, or all by themselves.

Fried Croissant Cinnamon Toast

Ingredients:

• Day-old croissants

• ghee or butter

• 3 teaspoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Slice the croissants in half. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and set aside. Spread softened ghee or brush melted butter on the exposed innards of the croissant, then coat with a generous layer of cinnamon-sugar.

Place the croissant half in a nonstick pan, sugar side down, and set the heat to medium (if using ghee) or medium-low (if using butter). Fry for a few minutes, until the sugar melts and caramelizes into a golden, crunchy coating. Remove from the pan, and let cool for a few minutes before eating to let the sugar harden. Repeat until you are out of croissants.

Source: LifeHacker – Fry Day-old Croissants in Ghee and Cinnamon Sugar