Please contact us any time for all your real estate needs.
Are we on the mend?
Every time I turn around, someone is asking me when the market around here is going to change…and my answer almost always is “I HAVE NO IDEA” I wish I did. The folks who know a lot more than I do, seem to think that we are on the mend, as an economy and as a RE market. I personally have not seen it in my circle. I am hopeful, prayerful, but somewhat skeptical! Most of the recent research maintains that people are spending more money these days on luxury items, therefore the economy must be getting better. That seems logical to me. These people who have money like this just don’t live in our area. Hopefully, they will decide to come on down and share the wealth! Buy a house, buy a car, take a vacation….All of these things will enhance our community, and make me a believer!
Bethal Village – Panama City Florida
I look at these beautiful faces and I see hope for the future and hurt from their past. I learn their names, they become real to me. I talk to them, they make me thankful for all of my God given blessings…..I am talking about my beautiful lady friends from the Panama City Rescue Mission’s Bethel House.
They come from all walks of life, educated – uneducated, some with familes and homes and some homeless, some have been incarcerated and some have not. All of them are reaching out to God for help with their addictions. They are real people with real problems and they need a helping hand, with no judgement. Who among us is without sin? Not me!
When you see a life changed and God Almighty at work in someone’s life, it hits you right in the heart! You see women who were scared, angry, bitter and living in a constant fog. They never make eye contact with you because of their shame. God gets in their lives and hearts and all of that changes. They are excited for their future. They are thankful for the chance to change. They look at you and you see so much more than an addict. You see this precious woman fighting the good fight and learning that she is special and has worth! You see these beautiful women evolve in to the lovely creatures God had intended them to be. Our God is an awesome God and he can heal and mend anyone!
My prayer for today and everyday is that this wonderful organization can keep on keeping on! They (The Mission) need your help, they need your prayers. Please stand with them and pray for them as they help to lead the souls to Christ!
Rescue Mission Does GOOD Works!
00 Homeless Kids Get an Early Christmas
Posted: 9:45 PM Nov 30, 2011 Reporter: Kavontae Smalls Email Address: kavontae.smalls@wjhg.com
The Rescue Mission sponsored an event called “Lunch with Santa” for dozens of homeless children in Bay County. It allows kids less fortunate the chance to forget about their problems and simply, be a kid. It only comes once a year, where people of all ages, are filled, with holiday cheer.
Thanks to the Panama City Rescue Mission and Innovations Credit Union, one hundred kids had the opportunity, to attend a special luncheon.
The event allows children less fortunate a chance, to experience Christmas
at more than just a glance.
When they got the chance to meet Santa, he asked if they’ve been naughty or nice.
If they were the latter, they were in for quite a surprise.
Santa’s elves prepared sacks filled with toys, for a room full of excited girls and boys.
Cars, Trucks, Barbies and games filled the tables, and attached to the hip, were plenty of kids, extremely grateful.
Today was surely a day none of these lucky children would dare miss, the chance to tell everyone watching, “Merry Christmas” said the group of children.
The Panama City Rescue Mission, Innovations Credit Union and all the cheery kids would like to share a lasting thought before this is done, and who better to say it than Santa Clause himself, “Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas, everyone,” said Santa Clause.
When the kids finished their Lunch with Santa, they were all taken on a tour of the Festival of Trees.
Five Great Things About Home Ownership
If you’ve been on the fence about homeownership, now is the time to take a leap! Don’t let the negative press deter you from one of life’s greatest joys.
Take a look at five short and sweet reasons that homeownership is great!
1. Equity. When you pay rent, you never see that money again. It is lining the landlord’s pocket. Yes, buying a home may come with some hefty initial costs (downpayment, closing costs, inspections), but you will make that money back over time in equity built in the home. Historically, homes appreciate by about 4 to 6 percent a year. Some areas are still experiencing normal appreciation rates. For the areas that have seen harder times since the recession, experts feel that the housing market will recover. Homeownership is about building long-term wealth. A home bought for $10,000 in 1960 is most likely worth 10 times that in today’s market.
2. Relationships: Renters tend to see their neighbors come and go quickly. Some people sign year leases while others are in the community for much shorter terms. Apartment complexes also tend to have less common shared space for people to meet, greet, and socialize. Homeowners, however, have yards, walking trails, or community pools and clubhouses where they can get to know each other. Neighbors stay put much longer (at least three to five years if they hope to recoup their closing costs). This means more time to develop relationships. Research has shown that people with healthy relationships have more happiness and less stress.
3. Predictability: Well, as long as you have a fixed-rate term on your mortgage it’s predictable. Most people buying homes today know that a fixed-rate is the way to go. This means your payment amount is fixed for the life of the term. If your mortgage payment is $500 today, then it will still be $500 a month in 10 years. This allows for people to budget and make solid financial plans. The sub-prime crisis meant many homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages saw their monthly payments rise and then rise some more. Homeownership, though, generally comes with a predictable table of expenditures. Even the big purchases are predictable. You know most roofs last just 15 years (or so). You know that each year you’ll need to pay for the gutters to be cleaned, and so on.
4. Ownership: Okay, this is a given. Homeownership means you “own” your home. That comes with some incredible perks, though! You can renovate, update, paint, and decorate to your heart’s desire. You can plant trees, install a pool, expand the patio, or do holiday decorating that would rival the Kranks (if the HOA allows!). The bottom line is this is your home and you can personalize it to your taste. Most renters are stuck with the same beige walls and beige carpet that has been standard apartment decor for 20 years. Now is your chance to let your home speak!
5. Great Deals: It’s a great time to buy. Interest rates are at historic lows. We’re talking 4.0 percent instead of 6.0 or higher. This means big savings for today’s buyers. Home prices have also taken a dip since the recession, which means homes are more affordable than ever. If you have steady income and cash for a downpayment, then be sure to talk to your local real estate agent about what homes in your area could be a fit for you.
Homeownership can be a real joy. It’s time to get off the fence and into a home that is right for you!
Published: November 2, 2011
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
Kind of like….”Insider Trading”~ Real Estate Style!
More short sales bring new scam: flopping
In ‘flopping,’ a home is purchased by insiders at a steep discount, then immediately sold for a big profit.
By Melinda Fulmer of MSN Real Estate
Real-estate agent Lynne Wright thought she had found the perfect home for her clients. The quiet house on a cul-de-sac in one of the most prestigious gated communities in Bakersfield, Calif., was offered in a short sale for $40,000 less than similar homes on the market.
Wright and the couple moved quickly and made an offer higher than the asking price, but were outmaneuvered by a husband-and-wife real-estate team in Wright’s brokerage office who wanted to buy it for their own use. She didn’t think much of it, until she saw that the property sold for $40,000 less than the $342,000 her clients had offered.
When she asked the listing agent why, she was told to “leave it alone.”
“It’s just robbery,” she says. “And I don’t know how to stop the robbery.”
- MSN Money: Should you sue your lender?
Apparently the nation’s mortgage servicers don’t, either. Suspicious real-estate transactions have surged in the past two years, analysts say, along with the number of short sales, in which a house is sold for less than the amount of its remaining mortgage.
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Avoiding Realty Scams
Date:4/6/2009Duration: 001:0019Video By: CNBC
More people looking for help from their lenders means more possibility for fraud and scams, reports CNBCs Diana Olick.
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Short sales are supposed to be “arms length” transactions without any relationship or collusion among the parties, all of whom must sign affidavits to that effect. But the parties often are connected.
Many times, this fraud is committed through limited-liability companies to make it hard for servicers to see who is buying the property, says Robert Hagberg, associate director of mortgage-fraud investigations for Freddie Mac.
In some cases, this type of mortgage fraud involves buyers scooping up distressed properties for a portion of their value, either for themselves or to give back to a friend or relative.
The rest involve “flopping,” where an investor – with the help of an agent or middleman – persuades the bank to agree to a much steeper discount than it should, and immediately resells the property to another buyer for a significant profit without having made any improvements. The FBI says it has found numerous instances in which organized-crime groups were involved in short-sale fraud.
According to a recent study by CoreLogic, short sales that were resold the same day averaged a 34% gain (or $54,947) between sale prices.
How To Avoid Real Estate Scams | How To Do Things |
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One in every 52 short-sale transactions in the first half of last year appeared to be one of these “suspicious” resales, CoreLogic said. This year, it expects lenders, servicers and investors to incur more than $375 million in unnecessary losses from these shady deals, as the number of short sales surges an additional 25%.
“Short-sale fraud and other servicing-related fraud is definitely the fraud du jour and our greatest area of focus at the moment,” Hagberg says. In 2011, more than 50% of Freddie Mac’s investigations were related to short sales.
Who are the perpetrators?
For the most part, these deals involve insiders, from the underwater borrowers themselves to investors, listing agents, brokers providing valuations and so-called “facilitators,” or middlemen negotiating with the banks and buyers trying to flip the properties.
Banks, with a huge backlog of distressed properties, are under pressure to do a lot of transactions and to do them as quickly as possible, says Ann Fulmer (no relation to the reporter), vice president of industry relations for Interthinx, a company that helps lenders reduce their fraud risk.
Knowing this, these insiders are able to work the system and push through bogus valuations to set the price of the sale or fend off higher offers.
Fulmer has seen listing agents involved in these scams post properties in multiple-listing services in the wrong city to avoid competition. Some post pictures of a completely different, junk-filled property. Or they stipulate that only people from the real-estate office will take offers on the property, so they can control the transaction.
In Wright’s case, which was reported to the state but has not been prosecuted, real-estate agents controlled every aspect of the deal. An agent in her office was the distressed borrower; the listing agent who represented the property and buyer sat just desks away, as did the real-estate team who eventually wound up with their own luxury property for a song.
“The thing that really bothered me was the lack of ethics,” Wright says. “Sure I can find my clients another house; what I couldn’t explain to them very well was how (something like this) can happen.”
Gary Crabtree, an appraiser in the area, said he got calls from several agents whose offers were rebuffed for the rock-bottom inside bid.
“It set an all-time low for that neighborhood,” he says.
Federal Funding for jobs….
Federal funds aimed at job creation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson announced Tuesday the allocation of funds to help create new private sector jobs and create a projected $1 billion in lending to small Florida businesses.
The new funds are expected to help small businesses in the state gain access to capital, something that has become increasingly difficult under a tight credit crunch.
The approval of the Florida’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) has allowed for the allotment of $97.7 million to flow through state-run programs to encourage banks to lend to small businesses.
“We are getting dollars out the door to small businesses to help create jobs,” said Don Graves, Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for small business.
Job creation is expected to occur through the expansion of companies and the recruiting on new businesses to the state by making funds available. For every $1 of federal funding at least $10 in new private lending is expected to occur, Graves said.
“This is all about jobs and providing jobs through small businesses, which is the economic driving force for Florida,” Nelson said. “We are creating jobs in Florida.”
Under the state’s plan money will come through three different stages. The first stage would have approximately $20 million to act as a reserve for banks to encourage lending. The Florida Office of Tourism Trade and Economic Development in partnership with Enterprise Florida, Inc., the public-private economic development arm for the state will oversee the program.
“Banks are so skittish about lending money they don’t want to make loans,” said Allan Bense, immediate past vice-chair of Enterprise Florida. “This will encourage banks to make loans.”
An additional $30 million will be used to leverage banks to make more loans and will be available to Enterprise Florida’s Venture Capital Program for venture loans, Bense said.
The final installment of nearly $40 million will be used to help existing businesses expand and to provide loans to help entice new businesses into the state. Before any federal dollars are spent the Florida Legislature must approve the expenditures.
“I think this is good for the state,” Bense said. “It helps small businesses and it adds another tool in the toolbox for Enterprise Florida to help recruit new industry.”
The SSBCI offers every state the opportunity to apply for federal funds for state-run programs that partner with private lenders to increase the amount of credit available to small business owners. The overall federal budget of $1.5 billion for the program is expected to create $15 billion in additional private lending nationwide.
Read more: http://www.newsherald.com/articles/creation-96145-federal-funds.html#ixzz1VIf6fe98
Mean people earn more money!!!! Wow
It may not pay to be nice in the workplace.
A new study finds that agreeable workers earn significantly lower incomes than less agreeable ones. The gap is especially wide for men.
The researchers examined “agreeableness” using self-reported survey data and found that men who measured below average on agreeableness earned about 18% more—or $9,772 more annually in their sample—than nicer guys. Ruder women, meanwhile, earned about 5% or $1,828 more than their agreeable counterparts.
“Nice guys are getting the shaft,” says study co-author Beth A. Livingston, an assistant professor of human resource studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
The study “Do Nice Guys—and Gals—Really Finish Last?” by Dr. Livingston, Timothy A. Judge of the University of Notre Dame and Charlice Hurst of the University of Western Ontario, is to be presented on Monday in San Antonio, Texas, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, a professional organization for management scholars. The study is also forthcoming in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The researchers analyzed data collected over nearly 20 years from three different surveys, which sampled roughly 10,000 workers comprising a wide range of professions, salaries and ages. (The three surveys measured the notion of “agreeableness” in different ways.) They also conducted a separate study of 460 business students who were asked to act as human-resource managers for a fictional company and presented with short descriptions for candidates for a consultant position. Men who were described as highly agreeable were less likely to get the job.
For men being agreeable may not conform “to expectations of ‘masculine behavior,’” the researchers write in the study. People who are more agreeable may also be less willing to assert themselves in salary negotiations, Dr. Livingston adds.
Other research shows that rudeness may not always benefit employees or their firms. A paper presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association found that 86% of 289 workers at three Midwestern firms in the manufacturing and health-care industries reported incivility at work, including public reprimands and making demeaning comments. Incivility was bad for the organizations as a whole, though, increasing employee turnover, found the researchers, Jeannie Trudel, a business professor at Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion, and Thomas Reio, a professor at Florida International University.
“The problem is, many managers often don’t realize they reward disagreeableness,” says Dr. Livingston. “You can say this is what you value as a company, but your compensation system may not really reflect that, especially if you leave compensation decisions to individual managers.”
Lockerz, a 65-person Seattle, Wash., social-commerce company, has what it calls a “no jerks and divas” policy that is stressed in its employee handbook and orientation, says Chief Executive and founder Kathy Savitt. She notes, though, that there is a difference between being respectful and being agreeable. “We are not about being ‘nice’ or ‘agreeable’ or ‘civil,’” she says. “We have a lot of robust debates about all kinds of things. But we do stress the notion of being respectful.”
Paul Purcell, chairman, president and chief executive of Robert W. Baird & Co., a Milwaukee financial-services firm, says that his 2,700-employee company “doesn’t hire or tolerate jerks. That’s frankly a large percentage of people in our business. They don’t get through the interview process.” The firm has fired at least 25 offenders of its “no-jerk” policy, he says.
Human-resources consulting firm Development Dimensions International, of Pittsburgh, offers courses in “Interaction Management,” covering interpersonal skills such as teamwork, managing conflict and giving and receiving feedback. “They are very trainable skills,” says Jim Davis, DDI’s vice president of work force and service development, who says that its interaction-training business is up 20% so far this year.
Foreclosure Help!
More Homeowners Get Help!
WASHINGTON – Aug. 9, 2011 – In June, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) helped 657,044 homeowners avoid foreclosure through permanent loan modifications – that’s up from 633,459 in May, according to Treasury Department statistics released Friday.
However, while the number has grown, the numbers still fall short of the initial goal to help 3 million to 4 million borrowers through HAMP, which since 2009 has reduced mortgage payments to help borrowers avoid foreclosure. (Homeowners in the program must make a few trial payments before the loan modification becomes permanent.)
For underwater homeowners – those who owe more on their mortgages than their home is currently worth – about 6,941 have participated in a principal-reduction program, up from 4,911 last month, the Treasury Department reported late last week. For borrowers who qualified to have their loan balances reduced, they’ve seen median principal reductions of $67,751, or 30.7 percent.
“We’re continuing to see a slight improvement in home prices and a decline in mortgage defaults as our foreclosure prevention programs reach more borrowers upstream in the process,” says Raphael Bostic, Housing and Urban Development assistant secretary. “But we have much more work to do to help the market recover and to reach the many households there and across the nation who still face trouble.”
Source: “Number of Home Owners in Loan Modification Program Rises,” Dow Jones Business News (Aug. 5, 2011)
© Copyright 2011 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
End of Housing Slump?
End in sight for housing slump?
- By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – 1 hr 19 mins ago
A real estate agent at an open house in Hollywood, Fla., September 2008: Marianne Arm …
Home prices will slip further over the rest of the year, before beginning to rebound in 2012, according to a forecast by a leading housing market analyst.
The study, released Tuesday by Fiserv, predicted that home prices for more than 95 percent of metro areas will rise by the beginning of 2013.
Using data from the Fiserv Case-Schiller Index of home prices, Fiserv–which provides information management systems to the financial industry–found that the drop in home prices that began again last year continued in the first quarter of 2011. The group’s research found that prices had fallen in 302 out of 384 metro areas surveyed.
At the same time, however, Fiserv noted several positive signs for the beleaguered sector, including a slower pace of foreclosures. In part because Fiserv also anticipates wider economic growth next year, analysts for the company project “a broad-based recovery for housing that will begin in early 2012.”
“Between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, homes are projected to increase by an average of 2.7 percent, with gains in 365 out of 384 metro areas,” Fiserv said in a press release.
The exceptions to that trend, David Stiff, Fiserv’s chief economist, told The Lookout in an interview, are markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and parts of southern California, which are still struggling with a glut of inventory built up during the housing boom.
To be sure, the broader economic forecast Fiserv relies on, generated by Moody’s, is more bullish than some other recent projections for growth. But Stiff said he’s nonetheless hopeful that stronger growth will generate employment, which will in turn spur demand in the housing market.
Stiff acknowledged, though, that the recent turmoil over the U.S. fiscal and economic situation could foil that hope. “This constant drip of bad news might cause consumers to cut back on spending in rest of 2011, which would change things,” he said.
The fate of the housing market is crucial for the economy as a whole. The Great Recession was triggered by a massive loss of housing wealth following the bursting mortgage bubble, which led consumers to cut back on spending. That spending still hasn’t picked up, which has prevented a robust recovery from taking hold.
Offshore investors snapping up Florida real estate
Offshore investors snapping up Fla. real estate
MIAMI (AP) – Aug. 8, 2011 – Offshore investors are flocking to Florida’s distressed real estate prices as major companies with ties to Hong Kong, Spain, Argentina and Malaysia are snapping up properties sensing the local market has bottomed.
International companies can park their investment and position themselves for the next development cycle, said Tere Blanca, president and chief executive officer of Miami-based Blanca Commercial Real Estate.
“Acquiring prime properties at discount prices in the height of the market was not achievable. Whomever has deep liquidity and can be nimble and act when opportunities arise can acquire properties at what we consider to be solid pricing,” he said, according to the Daily Business Review.
Stephan Gietl of Austria and his partner Fernando Levy-Hara, of Argentina, have purchased 307 South Florida condo units for $40 million since 2009. The duo has sold most of the units, mainly to international investors. Levy-Hara says the units yield between 5 and 6 percent profit per year after maintenance fees and property taxes.
“With the potential appreciation, if you’re buying at half the price of the bubble, you have the potential to go up 60 to 70 percent in the next five years,” he said.
As Americans worry about the economy and debt ceiling, international investors still perceive the U.S. as “the most reliable country in the world,” said Andrew Hellinger, chief executive of Coral Gables-based Hellinger & Penabad.
“We are a country where you can place your money for investment and know it’s safe.”
South Florida’s most notable recent deals have ties to investors with connections to major international companies.
Swire Properties, part of Hong Kong-based real estate and airline owner Swire Pacific, bought 2.15 acres in Miami at $14 million, along with the $13.1 million acquisition of Eastern Bank’s headquarters.
In May, Malaysia-based Genting Group paid $236 million for the Miami Herald’s headquarters. Genting, which also owns 50 percent of Norwegian Cruise Lines, plans to build nearly 7 million square feet of hotel, convention and restaurant space. Genting executives cited Florida’s growing population, budding Miami tourism and a likely nonstop flight from Asia to Miami International Airport as motivating the deal.
Agave Holdings, with ties to the owner of Jose Cuervo tequila, paid First Bank Puerto Rico $30.55 million for a project in Coral Gables.
Espacio USA, the American arm of Spanish real estate company Inmobiliaria Espacio, is about to close on its second office building. The company paid $31.52 million for another office building last year, with renovations running more than $1 million.
Brazilians have led the Miami condo market resurgence, accounting for 9 percent of unit purchases among international buyers of Miami single-family homes and condos, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.
“The feeling in Brazil is certain aspects of their real estate and economy make U.S. real property a relative bargain,” said Richard Goldstein, of Bilzin Sumberg. “In other countries like Venezuela, the currency is not as much of a factor. Political instability is a factor; they want a safe haven for their money.”
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. Information from: Daily Business Review, http://www.dailybusinessreview.com