Exposure 2011 | Ivan Tankushev

Exposure 2011 Ivan Tankushev

Borderless World- the title and the message are clear; the art is as dramatic and powerful as coult be! It is awesome!

Hollywood Begins Flushing Water Pipes « CBS Miami

Hollywood Begins Flushing Water Pipes « CBS Miami

Florida Enhanced Short Sale Relocation Assistance

Florida Enhanced Short Sale Relocation Assistance, offered by Bank of America: Florida homeowners may receive $5,000 to $20,000
in relocation assistance.

Bank of America encourages distressed homeowners to explore a short sale as a viable option for avoiding foreclosure. To that end, for a limited time we are offering enhanced relocation assistance to help motivate homeowners to engage with us on a pre-offer short sale. An additional benefit for these pre-offer programs - such as the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) and Bank of America's proprietary program - is that deficiency may be waived for the homeowner.
Eligibility:
• Homeowners with property in Florida
• Short sales initiated without an offer between September 26 and November 30
• The customer will have to be eligible for one of the without offer programs such as the HAFA program or our proprietary program (specific investor participation and eligibility criteria do apply to these programs)
• Successful closing of the eligible short sale by August 31, 2012
• Minimum relocation assistance is $5,000 and maximum is $20,000, with the specific amount calculated based on the unpaid principal balance

Homeowners and agents may call 1.877.459.2852 to speak to a Bank of America short sale specialist about this exciting relocation assistance offering.
Visit the Agent Resource Center at bankofamerica.com/realestateagent for additional short sale education, news and resources to help you complete short sales at Bank of America.

http://www.faceitpages.com/listing_confirm.php?editID=13341

http://www.faceitpages.com/listing_confirm.php?editID=13341

Florida Real Estate- What Is The Real Story, The Media Keeps Missing?

On Friday March 18, 2011, CNNMoney published an outrageously one-sided and completely inaccurate report:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-20-of-Florida-homes-cnnm-2507768369.html

"Nearly 20% of Florida homes are vacant"- as reported by Les Christie, CNNMoney Staff Writer. This compilation, (for the lack of better word since it does not qualify as a report, nor it is a story...) of names and meaningless statistics taken out of context, is a rather confusing read. All individuals quoted in this "pile of words" seem to be walking around with a crystal ball, dishing out forecasts that appear to be "accurate", yet they are completely outrageous and non-corroborated by facts! Take this one for example:

"Celia Chen, a housing market analyst for Moody's Analytics, is also downbeat in her forecasts for Florida. Not only will prices fall another 11%, she said, but the bottom won't hit until mid-2012, about a year later than the nation as a whole. Some metro areas won't get back to their pre-recession peaks until long after the present owners are old and gray. She doesn't expect Naples, for example, to come all the way back until the late 2030s. Other Florida metro areas with a 20-year wait or longer..."

Or, this one: "Housing went from being the preeminent investment of choice to toxic waste." added Richard DeKaser, an economist with the Parthenon Group. Wow!!! Mr. DeKaser needs to take a crash course in history and to remind himself what the rest of the world has known for centuries; real estate ownership has always been the most meaningful one; a symbol of wealth and power. "Under all is the land", reads the preamble to the Realtor's Code of Ethics. And this frase along, says it all.

Or, here is a real classic: "If you're buying in Florida for retirement," said Winzer, "maybe you buy next year when prices will be near the bottom. If you're buying for investment -- don't." What Winzer did not give you was the exact date, which is expected to be 12-12-2012!

What happened o using our common sense? Did we try to actually think, even for a brief moment, and try to grasp what exactly prompted real estate to be called "REAL ESTATE"? Why not "BOGUS ESTATE"- as all of those "real" specialists venturing wild guesses about the present state and the future recovery of real estate, are actually telling you it is?

To get the REAL story about FLORIDA REAL ESTATE, here are a few points to ponder:

- Tax benefits of the State of Florida: Florida is one of the only 7 states
without personal income taxation;

- Being a Landlord in Florida is by far better than any other place; domestic and international;

- Florida continues to be number 1 choice on the International market and number 6 for the domestic one;

- Compare what $500,000 buys you on the ocean, SE Coast of Florida, versus Cote D'Azure, or $500,000 in glamorous Down Town Miami, versus Paris, London, Milan, Manhattan?

- Retirees continue considering Florida, before any other place.

- Where else in the US can you enjoy 78F practically year around at such prices?

And, on a final note, there are great deals in every market. However, great deals combined with historically low interest rates, this happens only...NOW.

SHORT SALES- Still Tolerating The Intolerable Bank Practices, Why?

Too much has been already said about short sales (31,000,000 results for these 2 key words in Google)! So I wonder, why do we still tolerate their intolerable practices?

Why is it that when the bank processor tells us that we need to lower our commissions below the industry standard before they submit the file to the Bank Negotiator, we give out consent almost grateful that they will in fact submit the file to this high and mighty Negotiator?

Why is it that the banks somehow blame it on us and point to us, Realtors, Appraisers, Inspectors RE Attorneys... the list is long, that we were the instrumental for the way the real estate market is today? Yet, they are oblivious to the fact that the market is determined by supply and demand and what would the Buyer be willing to pay for a certain real estate property. As they are oblivious to the fact, that they gave money to many Buyers who would not even qualify to own a cat, never mind a home!

Why should I as the Seller's agent agree to lower my commission, and in addition to reach out and ask the Buyer's agent to agree to lower theirs, so that the bank would agree to the short sale? Is the Bank aware that I have already spent the bigger portion of my commission on listing, promoting and showing the property for the over 6 months it has been on the market? Is the Bank also aware that the Buyer's agent had spent many days and miles accompanying their Buyer to see myriads of properties before selecting this one?

Let me make this abundantly clear: we did not cause the difficult circumstances of the Seller; we did not cause the market conditions; we did not ask the Bank to lower their interest rates, back then when the Seller bought the property; we did not ask the Government to bail us out when our circumstances changed. Seriously, now let's look at the Banks and try to get a clear picture by posing the following questions:

1. When to US Government bailed the banks out to encourage the lending and boost the real estate sales, thus causing the market to shift, DID THE BANKS DO IT?

2. When the Government bailed the Banks out to revive the US economy, did the Banks reciprocate gratefully by bringing the labor back to the US? Why is it than, when we call our bank in the US, we talk to a rep in Katmandu? And why is it that instead of doing just that, to pour into the local economy by lending money and creating jobs, they DID THE OPPOSITE: limited lending to the fullest, and exported the jobs!

3. Why is it that short sales continue to be handled, or the more accurate description should be "mis-handled" by the bank personnel?

Now, let's look at us, Realtors, Inspectors, Appraisers, we all do our very best to keep our economy alive. We work here locally, when you call a Realtor, you don't talk to a call center in Katmandu, the same goes for an appraiser and inspector. Yet, the banks tried to "put us in order and organize us better", by creating the AMCs who have absolutely no respect for the appraisal profession! Now, here are a few more questions:

1. Why is it that when a Bank appointed appraiser is evaluating a home to qualify for a short sale, the home price is always much higher than the actual market; and when the same bank is sending out an appraiser to value the same home, for an FHA Buyer, the determined value is well below any reasonable market. Is this appraiser using 2 different measuring tools, or 2 different standards?

2. Isn't this all a huge conflict of interest?

3. Why are the Banks allowed to own the AMC's?

Back to the subject of the Banks putting claim on our commissions- the answer is NO! No, you may not require of us, Realtors to reduce our professional fees! You are interfering and disrespecting our binding contracts. And, NO- our commission is not subject to negotiation in a residential contract to purchase. The commission rate is set forth by a different contract: the listing agreement between Seller and Listing Agent.