Changes in technology now allow would-be borrowers to apply for financing whenever they like -- every day, 24-7. But many, it appears, are doing so during the workday, at a time, perhaps, when they should be working at their jobs rather than handling personal matters.

According to a MortgageMarvel.com analysis of some 650,000 online applications last year, people clicked the "send" button during all hours of the day and night. But activity started to pick up during the 10 a.m. hour (Central time) and didn't start to slow again until after 5 p.m.

If you assume that most people looking for a mortgage are employed, then they are obviously spending a good deal of their workday on their applications. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, says Rick Allen, CEO of the mortgage shopping service. Nor does it correlate that their work is suffering.

"I don't think it's a productivity issue," Allen ventures. "In today's work environment, people know how to balance work and personal matters. It's likely that people are doing regular work outside what we consider to be normal hours."

You might think borrowers would complete their loan applications on the weekend, but only about 15 percent of applications come in on Saturday and Sunday, according to MortgageMarvel. The rest come in during the week, with about 60 percent being submitted between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. The most activity is between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m.

Of course, a good deal of the information required hy lenders can't be gathered outside of regular business hours. While some workers are filling out their applications on the sly, savvy employers these days are granting their people a little more latitude in taking care of such personal matters. To compensate, employees are arriving earlier, staying longer and taking work home.

Looking to buy a house for your college student? Maybe a place of his own for your disabled son? Or perhaps a house nearby where your elderly parents can live out their remaining years?

Typically, financing a house in any one of these circumstances can be challenging. And the rules say you'll need as much as 20 percent down and the interest rate will be a half-point higher -- or more.

But Ted Rood, a senior loan consultant with Wintrust Mortgage in St. Louis, says it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

In researching the underwriting guidelines published by Fannie Mae, the big secondary market investor that sets the rules most lenders follow, Rood found an "obscure" exception that allows certain properties to be classified as owner-occupied even if the borrower doesn't reside in the place.

Fannie's guidelines state that parents wanting to provide housing for their college student children, or for physically handicapped or developmentally disabled adult children, can be considered to be owner-occupants if they meet the other lending program requirements.

Want to reach as many would-be buyers as possible? Price your home in round numbers, says realty broker David Rathgeber of Your Friend in Real Estate in Arlington, Va., and you'll get more exposure.

Since home searches are driven in a range of round numbers, you'll get a lot more eyeballs on your property and perhaps sell more quickly if your prices ends in 000, Rathgeber ventures.

Here's why: If your home is priced at $400,000, it will be found by anyone looking in the $350,000 to $400,000 range, the $375,000 to $825,000 range and the $400,000 to $450,000 range. But if it is priced at $399,000, buyers searching in the latter category will "be oblivious" to the fact that your house is on the market.

The Virginia agent says "almost all agents as well as individual buyers" hunt in round numbers. But if your place can't be priced at an even $100,000 increment, then make sure your asking price ends in three zeros. That, he promises, will give you an edge over your competition.

Wildfires like the one this summer that killed 19 elite firefighters in a blaze near Yarnell, Ariz., can't be stopped. But there's plenty homeowners can do to protect their properties.

If you don't think you should take remedial action, think again. One-third of all houses are located in what fire safety officials call wildland urban districts, which are near or among areas prone to wildfires.

Worse, perhaps, wildfires have ravaged houses in three-fourths of the 50 states. And with more and more people choosing to live in rural areas closer to nature, the chances are greater than ever that someone you know -- maybe even you -- will lose a house to a fire.

Indeed, on most days, a wildfire is burning somewhere in America. Nearly 30,000 fires have burned 2.5 million acres already this year, according to the latest count by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. And the state with the most fires isn't California, Arizona or another place in the West. It's Georgia.

Fortunately, wildfires are covered by standard homeowner insurance policies. But the best insurance is prevention. Here, gathered from a number of sources, are some steps you can take to protect your house, improve its fire resistance and shield it from indirect exposure:

-- Choose a firewise location. Canyons may offer a beautiful view, but they tend to act as chimneys, drawing the fire and accelerating the speed at which it spreads. A level site is better than a sloped one. A grass fire moves up a slope four times faster with flames twice as high as fire on level ground because hot gases rising in front of the fire preheat the up-slope vegetation.

If you're building new, you can avoid this kind of topography. Also, find out about prevailing winds, seasonal weather conditions and the local fire history, so you can plan your landscape design accordingly.

-- Implement landscape safety zones. Work on your surroundings so the landscape will not bring a fire to your door. Do this by creating three safety zones, the combined extent of which will depend on your property lines and your risk. In high-risk areas, even a zone reaching 200 feet from the house may not be enough.

The first zone should be a well-irrigated area that circles the structure for at least 30 feet on all sides. If your house is on a slope, though, a clearance of between 50 and 100 feet may be necessary, especially on the downhill side of the lot.

Plantings in this area should be limited to carefully spaced indigenous species. Beware of "ladder fuels," or vegetation that serves as a link between the grass and treetops and enables the fire to climb into trees or onto your house.

Trees and shrubs are fine in the first zone, as long as dead or low-hanging branches are removed and the height of ground vegetation is controlled. But the more grass, the better, because a wide lawn can serve as a fuel break just as much as a driveway. Ditto plants with a high moisture content.

Your irrigation system should also reach the second zone, which can contain a limited number of low-growing plants and trees spaced at least 10 feet apart. Dead or dying limbs should be trimmed away, and no live limbs should come within 10 feet of the structure. On trees taller than 18 feet, prune away branches that are less than six feet from the ground.

In zone three, thin selected trees and remove highly flammable vegetation such as dead or dying shrubs and trees.

-- Consider your roof, walls and windows. The landscape zones you construct around your house should keep all but the most ferocious wildfires at bay. But if one does happen to break through this protective zone -- usually from wind-blown embers or firebrands, sometimes more than a mile away -- ignition is most likely to occur on the roof.

Fire officials say eye-catching, untreated wood-shake roofs are the No. 1 cause of home losses in wildland areas because they can catch wind-blown sparks. If local rules allow, a better choice is factory-treated shakes. But consider using such noncombustible or fire-resistant roofing materials as Class A shingles, metal, cement and concrete products, or tile made from slate or terra cotta.

Fire-resistant subroofing also can improve survivability. But don't be fooled into thinking an expensive roof sprinkling system will stop a fire. You need a large volume of water to make a roof safe, yet water pressure is generally at its lowest during a fire. Also, the electricity needed to run the system is likely to fail, and the high winds that usually accompany a wildfire often divert the spray away from the roof.

Walls, too, should be made of fire-resistant materials such as stucco or masonry. Vinyl can soften and melt during a fire, offering little or no protection.

If you're building a new house, minimize the number and size of windows on the downhill side, the side most likely to be exposed to a fire. Smaller windows perform better than larger panes, according to the National Association of Homebuilders Research Center, and double-pane or tempered glass are more effective than single-pane glass. For greater protection, windows, sliding glass doors and skylights should have nonflammable screening shutters.

To prevent sparks from entering your house, screen your chimney with noncombustible wire mesh. Also cover exterior attic and under-floor vents with mire mesh -- plastic or nylon screening will melt -- no larger than an eighth of an inch. Screen under your porch, too, as well as any other areas below the ground line.

Also, locate your under-eave roof vents near the roofline rather than near the wall to prevent heat or flames from becoming trapped inside. For the same reason, the eaves themselves should be boxed or designed with minimal overhang.

Finally, inspect your house occasionally, looking for breaks and spaces between roof tiles, warping wood or cracks and crevices in the structure where fire or sparks could enter.

Lil Miller-Fox's individual retirement account has three bedrooms, two baths and a two-car garage.

Better yet, the rental house in a gated community in Sebastian, Fla., not far from the Atlantic isn't run by an advisor that charges exorbitant monthly fees. Rather, Miller-Fox makes all the decisions, and she doesn't have to pay anyone to execute them.

Her IRA is called a "checkbook IRA," an investment vehicle created nearly 20 years ago in a landmark court ruling that essentially said, it's your money, so you can run the show -- as long as you follow the rules.

Let's step back a moment: Not many people even know you can invest your retirement savings in real estate. But under Section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code, as long as you don't benefit directly, you are allowed to put some or even all the funds you set aside in a tax-sheltered IRA into real estate.

They're called self-directed IRAs because you can move your funds around. But until a 1996 court case, every step you wanted to make had to be carried out through a costly custodian. You could not take direct control. Every time you wanted to mow the grass or pay the bills, you had to pay a trustee to do it.

In the 1996 case of Swanson v. Commissioner, the tax court gave its blessing to a new type of self-directed IRA structure -- the checkbook IRA -- that is much simpler than investing through a regular custodial account.

Under the checkbook format, the IRA is set up as a self-directed account that's capitalized by funds rolled over from your current retirement account. Then, a limited liability company is created in which your new IRA purchases all the membership units. Now, your money is held in an LLC and you are ready to invest at your discretion.

That's what appealed to Miller-Fox. She's a self-proclaimed "real estate nut" who operates PrivateCommunities.com, a website that compiles information about many of the country's master-planned properites.

"I love real estate," she says. "I feel much more comfortable investing in tangible real estate than stock and bonds and that sort of thing. And this puts me absolutely in full control."

Under the rules, savvy real estate investors like Miller-Fox can buy, sell and manage domestic, foreign, commercial, residential and rental properties using money invested in their tax-deferred retirement account. The funds are held in a normal business account, and as the account's manager, you can sign contracts and write checks on the account, just like any other business.

The speed at which you can move opens up a slew of investment opportunities, such as snapping up foreclosures or tax liens -- or even a house that has just come on the market in a prime spot near the ocean or in the mountains. And, says Miller-Fox, "it's a great way for people to finance their retirement homes long before they are ready to use them."

There still are restrictions, of course. You can't use the property as your own residence or vacation home, and that applies not only to you but also to anyone in your family. And you can't take money out of your IRA account until you are 59 1/2 without incurring a big tax bite, just like if you took money out of a regular IRA.

Otherwise, rental income is tax-deferred because it is held in a tax-deferred IRA. And there is no capital gains tax when you sell an IRA-owned property.

A few other ground rules:

-- You can sell a house and purchase another one, and you can buy more than one property at a time. But any property purchased by your IRA is owned by your IRA, not you individually.

-- You can invest in raw land, real estate contracts or the trust deeds that back mortgages. And if you don't have enough money to invest or your own, you can pool your resources with others in the same boat.

-- Any money used to buy a property with your IRA has to come directly from your IRA, not you personally, and you can't be reimbursed by your IRA. This includes earnest money and closing costs, say Lorraine and Richard Walls, a couple from Midlothian, Va. who use their retirement accounts to buy investment properties in southwest Florida.

-- Similarly, costs associated with remodeling and carrying real estate need to be paid directly from your account. And any income from your properties has to flow back to your IRA.

-- You cannot do business with family members, including spouses, parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

There are still fees, too. There's a charge to set up the LLC, and you still must have a custodian. But you don't have to pay the custodian to execute each and every move you want to make, or to collect the rent and pay the bills. Consequently, the fees are far less than investing in real estate via a typical self-directed IRA.

How much less? Charges vary, but according to Guidant Financial, a self-directed IRA custodial firm based in Bellevue, Wash., you can save thousands in traditional transaction and asset-based fees by acting as your own IRA broker/custodian.