CrossroadsPortal

Websites On Strike to Protest SOPA and PIPA

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:31:43 +0000

The entire purpose the internet was created was to share information. There are litterally thousands of technologies and services that would not exist right now if it was not for the inherant sharing ability of the internet. Here is a just a sample of the websites that are going black today in protest of a bill that could cencor the internet in a way never before possible:

Google

Google on Strike

“Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.”

Wikipedia

Wikipedia on Stike

“Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.”

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla on Strike

“Protect the Internet, Help us stop Internet censorship legislation

Today Mozilla joins with other sites in a virtual strike to protest two proposed laws in the United States, called SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act. On January 24th, the U.S. Senate will vote on the PROTECT IP Act to censor the Internet, despite opposition from the vast majority of Americans.

Join us to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity.”

WordPress

Wordpress on Strike

“WORDPRESS.ORG PROTESTS THE PROTECT IP ACT

Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed. Please watch the video below to learn how this legislation will affect internet freedom, then scroll down to take action.”

Kevin’s Kids Holiday Drive

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Crossroads Realty is proud to help Kevin Berger of Kevin's Kids Holiday drive for our 10th year!

It is that time of year again!!! Boxes have been placed in the Executive Office, West Dover Office, and Whiting Office for Kevins Kids. Linda Adamson is the contact person to collect the donated items of Toys, and new or Gently used clothing and any kindly written checks. They can be made out to "Kevins Kids." Just call and Linda (908-814-8278), or Officer Conklin will collect these items. Anyone writing checks can contact Linda direct and she will pick them up from any Crossroads Office. Thanks to everyone!

Through the generosity of the Manchester community and the volunteer efforts of the Manchester Township School District staff, the drive provides toys, clothing, and food to children in the Manchester/Lakehurst area that are not so fortunate. There is no gift to big or to small. Checks are also accepted and will directly be used to buy food, clothes, and toys.

This drive began rather innocently almost 30 years ago...
"Mrs. Kathy Magee, a first grade teacher, was talking to her excited students just before the Christmas holidays," said founder Kevin Burger. "Each of the children was responding to Mrs. Magee's question, ‘What is Santa Claus going to bring you for Christmas?' After listening to each child's wish list, one little boy responded that ‘Santa Claus never comes to my house.' As Mrs. Magee fought back her tears, a drive began to make sure Santa visited that boy as well as the home of every child."

"The innocent words of that young boy remind us all that there are so many people in need," said Burger. "This year's economic times appear to be even more difficult. Whether it's increased gasoline prices or a rise in winter heating costs, too many parents have already told me that there just won't be a Christmas this year. We hear so many sad stories of people in need that I just hope we can help them all. Last year one little girl only wanted a new pair of sneakers. Since she had never had her very own pair, only having hand me downs that didn't fit, her mother didn't know her shoe size. The teachers decided to play a game with her by tracing her feet on paper. They then took the cut out model to the store to match the exact size."

How to Donate

Crossroads Realty is proud to be an official drop off location for Kevin's Kids.

Donations can be new clothing, dry, or canned food, toys, books, games. All items, unwrapped, can be placed in the boxes that are located in our Executive Office, West Dover Office, and Whiting Office .

Executive Office

25 Route 37 East
Toms River, NJ

Toms River West Office

168 Route 37 West
Toms River, NJ

Whiting Office

480 Route 530
Whiting, NJ

Cash and check donations go directly to buy food, new toys and clothing for every child identified on the list.

Comcast Scares Customers to Promote Business

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:44:43 +0000

Today I received a “Security Notice” from Comcast (aka Xfinity). They claimed to have detected that I MAY have been infected… That’s right, they didn’t say that my computers ARE infected, they are basically just guessing.

Now, normally I would just take this as polite advice to check my security systems… But, then it dawned on me that the general public is not like me, many people may read this notice from Comcast and become quite panicked.

Of course I realize what they are up to when I see the link they provide to offer you “help” brings you right into a sales webpage obviously promoting their new “XFINITY SIGNATURE SUPPORT”. This is a scare tactic, plain and simple. And it’s a shame that Comcast has resorted to this as a way to boost it’s sales.

Still, erring on the side of caution, I ran a full security scan of my home network and all my computers. Everything came up 100% clean with multiple tools from various vendors.

I then started to do some Google searches on the wording used in the Comcast email itself and found numerous others who have expressed what is basically the same gut feeling that I had, this is nothing more than a pathetic scare tactic on the part of Comcast.

Be warned

Comcast has not suddenly grown a conscience while changing their name to Xfinity, they are not trying to help all of us, they just want our money as per the usual.

If you are still worried that the threat may in fact be real, feel free to contact me through my company website and I will check your system out for one fifth the cost that Xfintiy Signature Support would charge you.

Or, you could always just scan your own system with up-to-date antivirus software, run all your Windows updates, then maybe run a final scan with Malwarebytes, it’s free and very reliable in cleaning things that antivirus can miss. Just don’t throw your money away by giving more of it to Comcast.

Here is the actual notice from Comcast / Xfinity

Dear XFINITY Customer,

Constant Guard from XFINITY identified that one or more of your computers may be infected with a bot. A bot is a malicious form of software that is used to send spam, host a phishing site, or steal your identity by monitoring your keystrokes without your knowledge. It may be possible you are unaware that your computer is infected with a bot.
We strongly recommend you visit XFINITY.com/BotAssistance (http://www.xfinity.com/botassistance/?CMP=EMC-Email1&utm_source=Notification&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email1) for important information on how to remove malicious software from your computer(s).

We appreciate your prompt attention to this important security notice.

Sincerely,

Constant Guard from XFINITY

Great Video from CNN to Share with Clients

Tue, 31 May 2011 13:18:59 +0000

As Lenders Hold Homes in Foreclosure, Sales Are Hurt

Fri, 27 May 2011 15:26:23 +0000

Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Jayson Meyerovitz, a broker in the Phoenix area, is concerned about bank-owned foreclosures: “If so many houses hit the market, what is going to happen then?”

By ERIC DASH

EL MIRAGE, Ariz. — The nation’s biggest banks and mortgage lenders have steadily amassed real estate empires, acquiring a glut of foreclosed homes that threatens to deepen the housing slump and create a further drag on the economic recovery.

All told, they own more than 872,000 homes as a result of the groundswell in foreclosures, almost twice as many as when the financial crisis began in 2007, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data provider. In addition, they are in the process of foreclosing on an additional one million homes and are poised to take possession of several million more in the years ahead.

Five years after the housing market started teetering, economists now worry that the rise in lender-owned homes could create another vicious circle, in which the growing inventory of distressed property further depresses home values and leads to even more distressed sales. With the spring home-selling season under way, real estate prices have been declining across the country in recent months.

“It remains a heavy weight on the banking system,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “Housing prices are falling, and they are going to fall some more.”

Over all, economists project that it would take about three years for lenders to sell their backlog of foreclosed homes. As a result, home values nationally could fall 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to Moody’s, and rise only modestly over the following year. Regions that were hardest hit by the housing collapse and recession could take even longer to recover — dealing yet another blow to a still-struggling economy.

Although sales have picked up a bit in the last few weeks, banks and other lenders remain overwhelmed by the wave of foreclosures. In Atlanta, lenders are repossessing eight homes for each distressed home they sell, according to March data from RealtyTrac. In Minneapolis, they are bringing in at least six foreclosed homes for each they sell, and in once-hot markets like Chicago and Miami, the ratio still hovers close to two to one.

Before the housing implosion, the inflow and outflow figures were typically one-to-one.

The reasons for the backlog include inadequate staffs and delays imposed by the lenders because of investigations into foreclosure practices. The pileup could lead to $40 billion in additional losses for banks and other lenders as they sell houses at steep discounts over the next two years, according to Trepp, a real estate research firm.

“These shops are under siege; it’s just a tsunami of stuff coming in,” said Taj Bindra, who oversaw Washington Mutual’s servicing unit from 2004 to 2006 and now advises financial institutions on risk management. “Lenders have a strong incentive to clear out inventory in a controlled and timely manner, but if you had problems on the front end of the foreclosure process, it should be no surprise you are having problems on the back end.”

A drive through the sprawling subdivisions outside Phoenix shows the ravages of the real estate collapse. Here in this working-class neighborhood of El Mirage, northwest of Phoenix, rows of small stucco homes sprouted up during the boom. Now block after block is pockmarked by properties with overgrown shrubs, weeds and foreclosure notices tacked to the doors. About 116 lender-owned homes are on the market or under contract in El Mirage, according to local real estate listings.

But that’s just a small fraction of what is to come. An additional 491 houses are either sitting in the lenders’ inventory or are in the foreclosure process. On average, homes in El Mirage sell for $65,300, down 75 percent from the height of the boom in July 2006, according to the Cromford Report, a Phoenix-area real estate data provider. Real estate agents and market analysts say those ultra-cheap prices have recently started attracting first-time buyers as well as investors looking for several properties at once.

Lenders have also been more willing to let distressed borrowers sidestep foreclosure by selling homes for a loss. That has accelerated the pace of sales in the area and even caused prices to slowly rise in the last two months, but realty agents worry about all the distressed homes that are coming down the pike.

“My biggest fear right now is that the supply has been artificially restricted,” said Jayson Meyerovitz, a local broker. “They can’t just sit there forever. If so many houses hit the market, what is going to happen then?”

The major lenders say they are not deliberately holding back any foreclosed homes. They say that a long sales process can stigmatize a property and ratchet up maintenance and other costs. But they also do not want to unload properties in a fire sale.

“If we are out there undercutting prices, we are contributing to the downward spiral in market values,” said Eric Will, who oversees distressed home sales for Freddie Mac. “We want to make sure we are helping stabilize communities.”

The biggest reason for the backlog is that it takes longer to sell foreclosed homes, currently an average of 176 days — and that’s after the 400 days it takes for lenders to foreclose. After drawing government scrutiny over improper foreclosures practices last fall, many big lenders have slowed their operations in order to check the paperwork, and in two dozen or so states they halted them for months.

Conscious of their image, many lenders have recently started telling real estate agents to be more lenient to renters who happen to live in a foreclosed home and give them extra time to move out before changing the locks.

“Wells Fargo has sent me back knocking on doors two or three times, offering to give renters money if they cooperate with us,” said Claude A. Worrell, a longtime real estate agent from Minneapolis who specializes in selling bank-owned property. “It’s a lot different than it used to be.”

Realty agents and buyers say the lenders are simply overwhelmed. Just as lenders were ill-prepared to handle the flood of foreclosures, they do not have the staff and infrastructure to manage and sell this much property.

Most of the major lenders outsourced almost every part of the process, be it sales or repairs. Some agents complain that lender-owned home listings are routinely out of date, that properties are overpriced by as much as 10 percent, and that lenders take days or longer to accept an offer.

The silver lining for home lenders, however, is that the number of new foreclosures and recent borrowers falling behind on their payments by three months or longer is shrinking.

“If they are able to manage through the next 12 to 18 months,” said Mr. Zandi, the Moody’s Analytics economist, “they will be in really good shape.

Only 1 More Year of Support for Vista

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:01:51 +0000

That’s right, if you are one of the few Windows Vista users out there that are still running a “home” version of the product, you will not get mainstream support anymore for Windows Vista after April 10th of 2012. According to Microsoft’s Product Lifecycle, all mainstream support for Windows Vista “Home” will end in about a year. Although, extended support for the “Business” and “Enterprise” versions will not end for an additional five years.

Mainstream support, means that basically, you will not see anything new added to Vista after that date. From what I understand, you will still continue to receive security updates no matter what version you are running due to the “Extended Support” date which does not end officially until April 11th 2017. You can thank all those companies out there that purchased Windows Vista Business.

An interesting side-note from Microsoft is that their new browser, Internet Explorer 10, is not expected to run on Vista at all. Since Internet Explorer 10 is not scheduled to launch until shortly after Vista expires, Microsoft does not have any plan to provide support for it running on Vista… Very odd behavior if you ask me. Every other browser out there is platform independent, let alone version independent. For example, other popular browsers like Firefox, Chrome and even Safari will run on all current versions of Windows, Mac, and Linux. If Microsoft continues down this path, I don’t think it will help them gain any more followers of Internet Explorer.

So, just an FYI to all you Vista “Home” users out there. Keep these dates in mind when you are deciding when to purchase your next computer.

Excellent Video!

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:34:00 +0000

Top Real Estate Website Battle Continues

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:14:53 +0000

There are a few changes going on right now with some of the top ranked real estate websites that list available properties for sale to the general public. Back in 2006 there seemed to be a flood of new websites trying to build a better mouse trap than the most well known real estate listing website; Realtor.com. Over the last 4 years or so, the top sites that seem to stay consistently ranked well in this area are Realtor.com, Yahoo! Real Estate, Zillow.com, and Trulia.com. All but one of these websites are about to change or combine their powers into new partnerships and acquisitions.

First off, let me just mention that during August 2010, Yahoo! Real Estate outranked Realtor.com as the most visited real estate-related website. To follow that up, in a November 2010 report from Experian Hitwise, the #1 spot was shown to be taken by Yahoo! Real Estate and it had a marketshare of 6.95%, this was followed by the #2 spot Realtor.com with a marketshare of 6.28%, followed by the #3 spot Zillow with a 4.45% marketshare, and the #4 spot Trulia with a 3.63% marketshare. Please note, your mileage may vary depending on your particular market area. Each of these websites have specific strengths and weaknesses in certain areas of the country.

On July 8th 2010, Zillow announced an upcoming listing partnership with Yahoo! Real Estate. This would basically combine the current #1 and #3 ranked real estate listing websites into a unique partnership. I am sure that Zillow’s intention is to use this partnership in order to jump ahead of Realtor.com with as much of a lead as possible starting in 2011, which is when this whole new listings partership should be going into effect.

On December 21st 2010, Trulia acquired Movity and also doubled the size of it’s workforce by moving into a new 30,000 sq foot office in San Fransisco. Movity.com was a stealth-like startup focused on surfacing geodata to help people make moving decisions. Their goal is to inform home buyers and renters of what locations are REALLY like. For example: -How safe is it? -Who lives next door? -How noisy will it be? -What do locals say about it? Sounds like a nice addition to the wealth of data that Trulia already provides for it’s listings.

Looking forward towords the rest of 2011, I think we will continue to see more interesting partnerships and acquisitions like these take place. After the dust settles, all these changes can ultimately show us who will be the last website standing… Although, if you ask any of them to their face, they will tell you that they do not compete with each other in any way, since they all provide services to separate groups of unique visitors. Make of that what you will…

Price Disconnect-Am I a Buyer or Seller??

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Published: Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010
By: Diana Olick CNBC Real Estate Reporter

Fact: Home prices lag home sales. It happens on the way up and on the way down.

Today's S&P Case Shiller home price report just confirmed what we've seen from umpteen other reports in the past few months, that home prices are taking a double dip. We knew it would happen. "I would guess that by the end of today I would hear lots of double-dip forecasts and a few I told you so's. Things are rotten," opines S&P's David Blitzer. Home sales fell off dramatically in July after the expiration of the home buyer tax credit. Then they came back a few months later, and then turned for the worse again in October. Prices are much harder to gauge because there is so much emotion involved in pricing a home, not to mention so much uncertainty surrounding foreclosure sales, which can affect the price reports dramatically. No question it is a buyer's market out there, but really only for the buyers who don't have to sell. Those who do have to sell, the move-up buyers, are stuck in this bizarre financial disconnect. It's all about math, that they apparently refuse to do. They expect a great discount on whatever house they're buying, but they are unwilling to take a loss on the home they're selling, even if it's a net gain in the end. "The move-up buyer is putting all his ideas about wealth based on the house he owns," notes DC area real estate agent Donna Evers. They simply refuse to do the math. "In other words, in 2005, say the peak of the market, a real estate agent told me I should be able to get $700k for my house, and now it looks like it might be worth 10 percent less - $630K so I can't sell because I've lost $70K. Well if you were going to buy a house for 950K it is now worth 855K which is a $95K differential,. plus you've got a tremendous saving on your monthly payments because interest rates are much lower compared to what they were in 2005." It all makes sense, but it somehow doesn't compute in the mind of the move-up buyer. Of course there's also the issue that banks are requiring larger down payments to get a mortgage, and some buyers don't have the equity cushion in their current home that would allow them to take a loss and still make a new down payment.

Pending Home Sales Surge Unexpectedly in October

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Pending sales of existing U.S. homes unexpectedly surged in October, data from a real estate trade group showed on Thursday, despite concerns that problems in the foreclosure process might curtail activity. The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in October, jumped 10.4 percent to 89.3 from 80.9 in September.Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report had expected a decline of 0.5 percent. The index remains 20.5 percent below a cyclical peak of 112.4 notched in October 2009, when a government tax credit lured first-time home buyers. "It is welcoming to see a solid double-digit percentage gain, but activity needs to improve further to reach healthy, sustainable levels," Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist, said in a statement. Several major U.S. mortgage lenders temporarily halted foreclosures in October 2010 as attorneys general in all 50 states investigated whether banks had submitted faulty paperwork to back evictions.

Great Tips For Using Facebook

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:00:09 +0000

RISMEDIA, January 4, 2011—A few years ago it was enough just to be on Facebook. That alone might have made you stand out. Nowadays, however, everyone—from your fiercest competition to your dear old Aunt Susie—is on the social networking giant, so it’s imperative that you maximize your presence. Here are seven ways to stand out among the sea of site users.

1. Most of us have a profile page on Facebook but it shouldn’t end there. You should have a page for your business as well. Having a business page will allow your existing clients to stay in touch with you and also refer you more easily to their friends and family. In addition, people who are interviewing you to choose you as their REALTOR® may also “check you out” on Facebook. It allows them to see you on a different level and connect with you more personally.

2. After you have created your business page, take the next step and create a page that is specific to a niche or specific target market or a specialty you service. For example, if you are experienced in working short sales, create a page like Knoxville Short Sales. On this page, post what is happening in the industry, the short sale process or learning about the HAFA program.

3. Invite your friends to “Like” your page. Once you have 25 friends, you can create a branded Facebook domain name. Just go to www.Facebook.com/Username to name your page. This will create an easy to remember name like www.Face-book.com/AvoidForeclosure.

4. Once you have your page created, convert it to work like an additional website.Create a welcome page that looks and feels like your brand and your website strategy. Include clickable sections and calls to action that get the visitor over to the lead generation elements in your website. Include buttons like “Search Properties Now,” “Hot Property Alerts” or “Foreclosure Deals.” New friends or leads that you send to your Facebook page will land on this page first, which is why it can be a powerful lead generator for your website.

5. Now that you have your page and an easy-to-remember domain name, focus on “waving the flag” and driving traffic to your Facebook page. Add your Facebook domain name to every single marketing element you use in your business. Whether it’s your business card, postcards, listing flyer, magazine ad or your website, don’t forget to include it with your contact information.

6. Ever notice the ads on the right-hand side of Facebook and also how those ads seem to relate to you? This is target marketing in action. Run Facebook ads that drive traffic to your main site or to specific landing pages that focus on lead capture. When running these ads, you can hyperfocus down so those ads will only appear to those who share certain interests or in a certain age bracket or a geographic area.

7. Track your lead generation and conversion stats on what works. When running ads on Facebook, you can see the percentages of “click throughs” and see which ads generate the most interest. Also look in the backend stats of your website and track how many hits are coming from Facebook. This will allow you to know where to focus and continue your marketing efforts.

Tricia Andreassen is CEO/founder of Pro Step Marketing. She is a leading industry Web strategy expert, a nationally recognized speaker with Broker Agent Speakers Bureau, and one of RISMedia’s Real Estate magazine’s monthly columnists. For two decades she has trained and coached real estate professionals on how to bridge technology, web strategy and traditional marketing into a cohesive marketing strategy. For more information, please visit www.ProStepMarketing.com or call 1-866-799-9888. Her company has created turnkey Web marketing systems and a short sale marketing system that pulls all these elements together so you can focus on real estate.

Pending Home Sales Surged Unexpectedly in October

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:30:35 +0000

Pending sales of existing U.S. homes unexpectedly surged in October, data from a real estate trade group showed on Thursday, despite concerns that problems in the foreclosure process might curtail activity.

The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in October, jumped 10.4 percent to 89.3 from 80.9 in September.Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report had expected a decline of 0.5 percent.

The index remains 20.5 percent below a cyclical peak of 112.4 notched in October 2009, when a government tax credit lured first-time home buyers.

"It is welcoming to see a solid double-digit percentage gain, but activity needs to improve further to reach healthy, sustainable levels," Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist, said in a statement.

Several major U.S. mortgage lenders temporarily halted foreclosures in October 2010 as attorneys general in all 50 states investigated whether banks had submitted faulty paperwork to back evictions.

Home Price Disconnect: Am I a Buyer or Seller?

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:55:19 +0000

Published: Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010 | 12:37 PM ET

By: Diana Olick
CNBC Real Estate Reporter

Fact: Home prices lag home sales. It happens on the way up and on the way down. Today's S&P Case Shiller home price report just confirmed what we've seen from umpteen other reports in the past few months, that home prices are taking a double dip. We knew it would happen.

"I would guess that by the end of today I would hear lots of double-dip forecasts and a few I told you so's. Things are rotten," opines S&P's David Blitzer.

Home sales fell off dramatically in July after the expiration of the home buyer tax credit. Then they came back a few months later, and then turned for the worse again in October. Prices are much harder to gauge because there is so much emotion involved in pricing a home, not to mention so much uncertainty surrounding foreclosure sales, which can affect the price reports dramatically.

No question it is a buyer's market out there, but really only for the buyers who don't have to sell. Those who do have to sell, the move-up buyers, are stuck in this bizarre financial disconnect. It's all about math, that they apparently refuse to do. They expect a great discount on whatever house they're buying, but they are unwilling to take a loss on the home they're selling, even if it's a net gain in the end.

"The move-up buyer is putting all his ideas about wealth based on the house he owns," notes DC area real estate agent Donna Evers. They simply refuse to do the math. "In other words, in 2005, say the peak of the market, a real estate agent told me I should be able to get $700k for my house, and now it looks like it might be worth 10 percent less - $630K so I can't sell because I've lost $70K. Well if you were going to buy a house for 950K it is now worth 855K which is a $95K differential,. plus you've got a tremendous saving on your monthly payments because interest rates are much lower compared to what they were in 2005."

It all makes sense, but it somehow doesn't compute in the mind of the move-up buyer. Of course there's also the issue that banks are requiring larger down payments to get a mortgage, and some buyers don't have the equity cushion in their current home that would allow them to take a loss and still make a new down payment.

Public Short Sale Seminar

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Foreclosure? Short Sale? Need Help?

In these trying economic times, join us at PNC Bank's new Jackson Branch for this free Informational Community Seminar. A Panel of local Mortgage, Legal, Tax and Real Estate Professionals will be on hand with plenty of information, and ample time for Questions & Answers.

RSVP: No later than 10/11/10 to Christine at (732) 223-8925. Seating Is Limited, Reserve Early!

Date: Wednesday, 10/13/10 Time: 7:30pm

PNC Bank, Jackson Branch
331 N. County Line Road
Jackson, NJ 08527

Free Community Information Seminar:
What are my options?
What are the legal and tax ramifications?
How much will it cost?
How much is my house worth?
Is refinance an option?

Ocean & Monmouth County Food Drive

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Let's do our part and make a contribution to the community!

The Monmouth County Association of REALTORS® would like to have our assistance in a food drive to help provide food to Monmouth and Ocean County residents who experience food insecurity and are struggling to put food on the table for their families. This food drive will help Monmouth and Ocean Counties bolster their depleted inventories as the demand for food assistance continues to rise faster than donated food supplies.

The Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties

According to the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, in 2009 127,500 local people received emergency food through pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. This is an 84% increase over the 69,340 annual recipients in Monmouth and Ocean Counties in 2005.

We are welcoming all non-perishable items...

Our drop off office locations are as follows:

Berkeley - Holiday City Plaza 1, 730 Jamaica Boulevard, Toms River, NJ

Brick/Silverton - Yorktowne Plaze, 3000 Yorktowne Boulevard, Brick, NJ

Executive Office - 25 Route 37 East, Toms River, NJ

Manchester - 2002 Route 70, Manchester, NJ

Toms River West - 168 Route 37 West, Toms River, NJ

Thank you for all your donations!

Get more life out of your laptop barttery

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:50:32 +0000

A notebook or netbook gives many people the independence that has become a necessity in life: You can work outside of the office, watch a DVD on the plane, send e-mails to friends from the coffee shop; but the limited battery time often cuts the fun short, even though many manufacturers promise the batteries will last much longer. In this article, I will show you how to noticeably extend the battery life of your laptop, resolve incorrect PC settings and teach Windows how to save on some energy.

The following general tips help gain you valuable time, whether it’s for working on the move or enjoying your time off. Quick changes for long-lasting battery operation:

#1 Reduce your Screen Brightness
Your laptop screen eats up power relentlessly. Dim the brightness of your screen using the function keys on your notebook to greatly reduce battery consumption. I can not stress this enough, the brightness of your screen is by far the #1 power drain.
#2 Remove or Turn Off Unnecessary Devices
Unplug USB sticks or external drives from your notebook in order to extend your battery life, and only turn on energy-zapping devices such as WiFi receivers, network connections, webcams, and DVD drives when you actually need them. At other times, you can turn them off using the function keys, the Windows device manager, or special energy-saving programs.
#3 Use “Max Battery” Mode
Reduce your computer’s power consumption by clicking on the little battery icon on the task bar and then selecting “Max Battery” mode. Although this does slightly reduce processor and graphics performance, your battery will last significantly longer. Depending on what you mainly use your laptop for, this option may not be fore some people.

One of the energy saving programs that can also save you on some battery life is TuneUp Utilities. I have personally used their product since 2004 and have come to love many, if not all, of the handy utilities that are bundled in the software.

Unnecessary background programs and the stylish glass-look interface on Vista® and Windows 7® suck the battery dry also. A quick tip for those that just want a set-it-and-forget-it solution is to just use TuneUp Utilities. The Turbo Mode option in this optimization software not only switches off unnecessary hardware, but also deactivates battery-draining Windows functions such as defragmentation, Windows indexing and searching for Windows updates. You can activate Turbo Mode simply by clicking once on the TuneUp Utilities start page.

The people over at TuneUp carried out a test on two notebooks configured identically to see the real world benefits of Turbo Mode. They took two laptops (1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo, Windows 7®) and, with Turbo Mode switched on, the battery lasted a whole 30 minutes more!

Note: If your primary concern is with your battery life, you should not activate the “Maximum Performance” function. Click on the “Wrench Icon” in the right-hand corner, near the Turbo Mode button, and then on the “Next” button until you see the “Optimize performance without considering energy consumption” checkbox. Un-check this option to deactivate.

Summary:

Any notebook or netbook can run for longer with simple energy-saving tips for Windows and the power-saving Turbo Mode from TuneUp Utilities. It’s surprising to know that in some of their tests, they were even able to increased battery performance from an initial 1 hour 45 minutes to an impressive 3 hours 50 minutes, more than doubling battery life, Wow! Can your notebook match that? (* of course, your mileage may vary based on models and configuration)

Keep your PC in shape for the long term: Buy TuneUp Utilities 2010 Now!

Would you like to try before you buy? No problem! They also offer a trial version. See for yourself how impressive this software really is and download a free 30-day trial of TuneUp Utilities.

Rentals now on Zillow

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:53:40 +0000

Yesterday, Zillow announced a major enhancement to their website - the addition of Rentals on the Zillow.com site! With the addition of Rental listings and search, Zillow is trying to give their users another tool to help them throughout their decision making process.

After months of development, we are excited to have the ability for people to post and search for Rentals. We’ve created an innovative way to find these Rentals on the site with the ability to search by “Monthly Payment”. This will allow users to simultaneously search homes for sale and for rent based on a monthly payment they can afford.

Zillow does not offer brokers any way to automatically feed rentals yet like they do for residential homes for sale. Although, Zillow does claim that “the ability to take Rental listings via a feed is high on the to-do list and you’ll hear news about it early 2010.”

Trulia’s new home search for mobile phones

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:41:39 +0000

Trulia has updated it’s mobile services to include an updated iPhone app and also a mobile website that can be accessed from any smart phone or browser.

Download the iPhone App

Visit the Mobile Website

Now you can get more real estate data on your mobile phone with Trulia’s new mobile website and updated iPhone app! Find homes for sale on-the-go, get detailed property information, contact an agent and more! Plus, with Trulia’s mobile website, you can view local market data, ask questions in our Trulia Voices community and view your saved homes. If you’re an iPhone user, download the free app and check out new features like moveable maps and big photo slideshows!

Crossroads Realty Buyer's Seminar and Tax Credit information Review

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Please join us at the Crossroads Realty Buyer's Seminar (and Tax Credit information Review).

This event will be held weekly, every Saturday, from 12-2pm until further notice.

The seminar is designed to inform the public on "What All Buyers Must Know In Today's Market".

Take advantage of this timely information.

Location: 168 Route 37 West, Toms River, NJ.

Please call: 732-244-2200 to sign up.

Great Article to Give Homeowners!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:33:47 +0000

Are you the reason your home won't sell?

By Marilyn Kennedy Melia • Bankrate.com

Highlights

The only way to sell at a loss is to research the housing market.
Ask your agent to provide lots of recent prices on sales of comparable homes.
Moody's Economy.com predicts prices will stabilize in mid-2010.

Many home sellers are losing money ... precisely because they're determined not to lose money. So why won't your home sell?

One reason homes are languishing on the market is because owners are suffering from "sunk cost fallacy" observes Ohio State University economist John Kagel.

A condition recognized not by physicians, but rather by behavioral finance experts, this fallacy describes the reluctance people have to selling for less than they've paid or put into a home, even when hanging on, waiting for the right price, will ultimately prove costly.

It can be hard to shake this faulty logic, even when homeowners' income has dropped precipitously or they're living off a limited amount of money, like a severance package, says financial planner William Suplee of Structured Asset Management, in Paoli, Pa.

Here are three questions to determine whether you could benefit by losing money on a home sale:

1. Will you slash your housing costs with a move?

Owners under financial pressure who could find relief on their monthly cash flow by moving to a lower-cost home that they either buy or rent are the ones grappling with the sunk cost fallacy.

Suplee tries to help owners get clear view of their best option by preparing spreadsheets that lay out the costs of different living arrangements.

Don't forget all the ancillary expenses, like commuting costs, that go along with a particular housing choice, adds Lexington, Ky., financial planner D. Scott Neal.

Laying out the annual costs of staying in a home that cost his client $800,000 several years ago was the only way to convince her that she would soon deplete her savings if she stayed put, says Rapid City, S.D., financial planner Rick Kahler.

Even though she'd probably sell for about $300,000 less than she paid, the monthly outlay was unsustainable, Kahler says. The pain of loss is softened, somewhat, he adds, because she can buy a home that is also valued less than it was several years ago. And, the recently passed tax credit of up to$6,500 for repeat buyers under certain income levels also applies to many in this position

2. Do you know what's a realistic price?

Recognizing that conditions dictate selling at a loss doesn't mean that you're ready to accept any offer, however.Indeed, experts stress that the only way to proceed confidently with selling at a loss is to thoroughlyresearch the housing market in your area.

Ask your agent to provide lots of recent prices on sales of comparable homes. In some states, agents can also provide very recent sales data by getting the prices of homes under contract, says John Huggins, president of Coldwell Banker Legacy Real Estate Group, in Bowling Green, Ky. Home sellers can also ask to tour other properties for sales to get an idea of how their home compares with other properties being offered at various price levels, he says.

Homeowners who owe more in mortgage than they can likely net in a sale have to investigate whether they'll have to add in their own cash to pay off the loan, or whether the mortgage lender will agree to accept a lower amount. In cases where owners have to pay out of pocket to sell, that outlay could alter the advantage of moving, says Neal.

3. If you hold out, could you avoid a loss?

Going against the natural inclination to avoid loss means that you've analyzed the cost of holding the property and are reasonably confident prices won't spring back up.

The National Association of Realtors forecasts home prices nationwide will end 2010 up just under 4 percent from the end of this year.

Moody's Economy.com predicts prices will stabilize in mid-2010, but there will be no appreciation. Economy.com's housing economist Celia Chen expects some middle and higher-end housing at risk for further decline next year, and thinks that some homeowners will not see prices return to what they paid for at least several years.

Real estate trends are local, adds Huggins. He advises looking at prices for similar homes in your area and gauging demand against inventories.

When he prepares spreadsheets for homeowners to examine the costs of holding versus moving, Suplee asks: "What rate of appreciation does the house need for a holding strategy to make sense?" Then, he asks for an honest determination of how plausible it would be to see that appreciation.

Foreclosure Offer Deals But Beware!

smercer@DelphicSage.com (Tara Siegel Bernard) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Click Here to View a List of Short Sale Properties

So you’re looking to buy a new home, and you think a foreclosed house may be the best deal. You’ve probably noticed, then, that many of the big banks’ Web sites are beginning to look a bit like real estate brokerages, showcasing the many properties that they’ve repossessed.

The Gordons are happily living in the three-bedroom ranch in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., that they bought for $500,000 through a short sale in February. These houses often sell for about 15 to 20 percent less than comparable homes in the same neighborhood, according to the National Association of Realtors. And while the banks have been careful not to flood the market with all their properties at once, there are hundreds of thousands of listings now, and half a million more expected in the coming year.

Despite the seemingly high inventory, though, anyone considering buying a distressed property should heed the classic warning: Caveat emptor, or let the buyer beware.

Closing a deal in a desirable neighborhood can be hard to do. Many aspiring homeowners have lost out to all-cash bidders. Buyers also need to search more aggressively than usual, which means figuring out which brokers have the best foreclosure listings, religiously checking for new ones and visiting the properties shortly thereafter. Buyers also need to ensure that the home is truly a good deal and not a money pit — most of these homes are sold as is.

Still, as Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service, put it, “The best discounts have been on bank-owned property.”

If you are still interested in buying a distressed property, you have several options. You can buy it through a preforeclosure sale, at a public auction or through a bank or other entity that has taken ownership of the home — these properties are known as real estate owned, or R.E.O.’s.

Below is a more detailed description of the potential risks and benefits of buying R.E.O.’s and preforeclosure transactions known as short sales, where the bank agrees to sell a home for less than is owed on the mortgage. Through October, foreclosures and short sales accounted for nearly 37 percent of all home sales, on average, according to the Realtors’ association.

R.E.O.’s

Traditional homebuyers are generally discouraged from buying homes at auction because there are too many risks — you can’t tour the inside of the home, which increases your chances of buying a house that will drain your bank account. Equally important, the home won’t necessarily have a clear title, which means there may be tax liens or other debts against the property. And when you buy the home, you buy those issues, too.

One of the benefits of R.E.O.’s is that the bank typically clears any title issues before it puts the house on the market. “It’s easiest because there is a price already, there is access, you can do your estimate for repairs, and you can write your offer and go,” said Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, which lists foreclosures and offers classes for foreclosure investors.

But you need to do your share of preparatory work. Start by getting acquainted with the listings in your target area. All R.E.O.’s are sold through an agent. You can find their listings directly on the big banks’ Web sites, like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, as well as regional banks like SunTrust. Fannie Mae offers its listings through the HomePath Web site and Freddie Mac through HomeSteps.

You can also find free listings through independent brokerages like Redfin.com, which has a forum where you can compare notes with other buyers. If you pay a monthly fee, you can access sites that track distressed homes from the moment of default through foreclosure. These sites include RealtyTrac ($49.95 a month), Foreclosures.com ($49.95), and Foreclosure.com ($39.80), all of which provide a free weeklong trial.

One of your first steps would be getting preapproved by a mortgage lender so that once you find a property you are interested in, you can move quickly. Call the listing agent, or hire a buyer’s agent to do it for you. (You should hire a buyer’s agent with experience in these types of sales anyway. In some states, the listing agents may refer you to someone else in their office to represent your interests, said Frank Verna, an R.E.O. broker in Jupiter, Fla.). Arrange to see the home as soon as possible. The bank selling the property may want you to be preapproved with their own lending arm, though you can always use another lender in the end, experts said.

Most R.E.O.’s are sold as is, so buyers should make their offers contingent on a home inspection. It’s best to find inspectors who are also licensed contractors (with references), so they can estimate repair costs. Putting too many contingencies in your offer, however, is likely to derail your bid.

Buyers also need to be prepared to lose to buyers with all cash. That’s what happened to Jason and Elise Hope, who have been searching for a small starter home in San Diego County for six months. The couple has made more than two dozen offers on bank-owned properties, and a couple of short sales, priced from $300,000 to $400,000.

“For the most part, we never heard back from the listing agent,” said Mr. Hope, 28, who works as an equity research associate for a forensic accounting firm. “When we did hear back, we often heard the same story — that the listing had 10 to 20 offers on it, along with ours, within the first weekend of it being available for showing.”

As Mr. Verna, the broker, explained: “In the R.E.O. world, cash is still king because there is no appraisal, last-minute quality checks or potential problems to kill the deal.”

You may be able to increase your chances by making your best offer from the start. But to ensure you don’t overpay, research comparable sales on sites like Zillow.com or have your agent prepare a “comparative market analysis” for you. “You are negotiating with a calculator, and if the numbers don’t work for the seller, they just say no and move on,” Mr. Verna said.

Fannie Mae does give prospective homebuyers a leg up. Last month, it introduced a program that shuts out investor buyers for the first 15 days a home is on the market. Moreover, Fannie also has a financing program, which allows buyers to put down as little as 3 percent and doesn’t require them to carry mortgage insurance. It also provides loans that allow borrowers to wrap in costs for home renovations.

Freddie is testing a program that also initially shuts out investor buyers, and it is currently offering consumers who buy one of its properties up to 3.5 percent of a home’s purchase price, which can be used for closing costs, moving or even furnishings. The program was recently extended to buyers who submit a purchase offer by Jan. 31 and close by March 26. Primary homebuyers are also eligible for a two-year warranty on certain home repairs.

Short Sales

Short sales tend to be more problematic than R.E.O.’s. If you make an offer on an R.E.O., you can expect to get a response within a few days. With a short sale, experts say, it can take months. You also can’t necessarily trust the listing price.

“It may easily be a teaser price just to get offers in,” said Carolyn Warren, author of a new book “Homebuyers Beware: Who’s Ripping You Off Now?” (FT Press). “It’s kind of like posting something on eBay. They are going to list it at a dollar, but they might only sell it for $1,000.”

There are other potential problems as well. While the seller may be motivated, the bank has to be convinced of two things: “One is that the homeowner in question deserves a hardship exception,” Mr. Sharga of RealtyTrac said. “The second thing is that you have to convince it that it is market value, even though it is below the mortgage amount.”

Complicating matters further, the homeowner may have more than one loan on the property, adding to the number of parties involved in the negotiations.

All this lengthens the time to close a deal.

You can get lucky, too. Michelle and Mark Gordon are happily living in a three-bedroom ranch that they bought through a short sale in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., in February. It took only three months to close — record time in the world of short sales. But Mrs. Gordon, a librarian who now stays home with her young daughter, did her homework and was aggressive in her search. She checked the listings religiously on Redfin.com, and saw the property the day after she found it.

The Gordons paid $500,000 for the home, and the bank paid the $12,000 in closing costs. The property was recently valued at $537,500 on Zillow.com. “We painted two rooms,” Mrs. Gordon said. “That was it.”

Tax Credit Information

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:37:10 +0000

With only a few weeks left until the first-time homebuyer tax credit expires, the Senate voted yesterday to extend and expand it through April 2010. On Thursday, the House voted 403-12 in favor of the bill. It could go to President Obama’s desk for his signature as early as Friday.

Officially called S.A. 2712 – the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009, the bill also includes tax credits for buyers who already own homes.

NAR Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. Existing homeowner credit: Must the new house cost more than the old house?

A. No. Thus, for example, individuals who move from a high cost area to a lower cost area who meet all eligibility requirements will qualify for the $6500 credit.

Q. I am an existing homeowner. On October 25, 2009, I signed a contract to purchase a new home. I have lived in my current home for more than 5 consecutive years and am within the new income limits. I will go to settlement on November 20. If President Obama has signed the bill by the time I go to settlement, will I qualify for the new $6500 tax credit?

A. Yes. The existing homeowner credit goes into effect for purchases after the date of enactment (when the bill is signed). There is no reference to the date of contract for the new credit. The provision looks solely to the date of purchase, which is generally the date of settlement.

Q. I am a first-time homebuyer but was not within the prior income limits at the time I entered into my contract to purchase on October 30, 2009. I will be covered, however, by the new income limits. If the new rules have been signed into law by the time I go to settlement, will I be eligible for a credit?

A. Yes. The new income limitations go into effect as soon as the President has signed the bill. The income limit and other eligibility rules will look to your status as of the date of purchase, which is the settlement date. So if the new rules have been signed when you go to settlement, you should be eligible for the credit (or a portion of the credit if you’re within the phase-out range).

Q. I am an eligible existing homeowner. I have a fair amount of equity in my home. I have found a home with a non-negotiable price of $825,000. Will I be able to use any of the $6500 tax credit?

A. No. The $800,000 cap on the cost of the purchased home is firm at $800,000. Any amount above $800,000 makes the home ineligible for any portion of the credit. The $800,000 is an absolute ceiling.

Q. I owned my home for 10 years, but sold it two years ago and have been renting since. If I purchase a home, will I be eligible for the $6500 tax credit if I meet all the other eligibility tests?

A. Yes. Because you lived in the home for more than 5 consecutive years of the previous 8, you will qualify for the $6500 credit. For example, say John and his wife bought a home in 2000 and lived there until 2008 when he got a divorce. Whether John has been renting or bought in the interim, he WOULD INDEED be eligible for the credit because he owned a home and occupied it as his principal residence for 5 consecutive years out of the last 8 years. The keyword here is “consecutive.” As long as he lived in that house for 5 years straight, what he did since 3 years doesn’t impact eligibility.

Q. I am an eligible first-time homebuyer. I entered into a contract to purchase on November 1, 2009. Do I have to go to closing before December 1? How does the extension date affect me?

A. You do not have to close before December 1. Once the legislation has been signed, it will be as if the Nov. 30 date had never existed. Therefore, so long as the contract settles before April 30 (or July 1, worst case), the purchaser will be eligible for the credit.

To learn more, download this homebuyer tax credit changes chart from NAR.

Using Gmail to manage ALL your email accounts

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:36:12 +0000

These days, most people need to juggle at least 2 email accounts around. One for personal use, and one for work. Often though, people may even have four or five email accounts that they need to keep track of. I personally have four… 2 for work related email, 1 that came with my ISP at home (Comcast), and of course my Gmail account. If your like me, managing all these accounts in a single online location may be just the thing you need to keep your sanity.

I have used Outlook to do this very same thing for more than a decade now, but the downside was that Outlook is only located on a single computer. If I didn’t have my laptop with me, I was lost. I tried accessing my work email using a smart phone, but then I had copies on one account, and copies on my laptop in Outlook, always trying to remember which device I used to respond to which email… It was only making matters worse. That is, until Gmail rolled out their new POP3 import features and Gmail app for my Blackberry. Wow, what a lifesaver!

Frequently Asked Questions…

Why is this better than regular POP3 Outlook? Because Gmail is on the internet, no matter where in the world you are. You do not need to lug around a laptop to access everything in a central location.
Why is this better than using IMAP in Outlook? Using the IMAP feature in Outlook still leaves a copy of your email on the original server(s). This can be considered a benefit since you will still be able to access your email even without Outlook… Although, if you have a quota or space limit on your work email that is lower than Gmail’s impressive 7+ Gigs, you will not be able to hold on to as much of it.
Why is this better than email forwarding? Simply forwarding all your other email accounts to your Gmail address does not allow you full control of your email. It becomes difficult to sort and manage which emails came in through what account, and does not allow you to send email from any address other than the main one. It also creates issues with some spam filtering services since you will be forwarding all your spam as well as your legit email, possibly flagging you (or your mail server) as a possible spammer.
How does Gmail make life easier with smart phones? Gmail has a mobile app for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia S60, and Windows mobile. Using this mobile app will let you see the exact same thing on your phone that you see on the Gmail website. If you read an email on your phone, it shows up as “read” on the Gmail website as well. If you send an email on your phone, it also shows up in your sent folder on the Gmail website.

Becoming Familiar with the Gmail Layout…

Gmail is a little different than other email systems. Take a look at the screenshot below to familiarize yourself with the layout, and some of the features.

Gmail groups related emails together… So if you received an email, and then responded to it, those two emails will show up in the same line together with a number (2). If the person then responds back, it will show a (3) since there are now 3 emails relating to the same subject, etc, etc…
Another big change is that Gmail does not use “Folders”, it uses Labels… Basically all your emails are always located in the same folder, there are never any “sub-folders”. Once you get used to this way of organization, it becomes very useful since each email can now have more than one color coded label attached to it. You can then select the label you want to view on the left menu and Gmail will show you all messages that have that label applied to them.
You are able to write custom rules that can do almost anything to a message when it first arrives, like adding a “star” to all emails that are from certain people, or automatically deleting emails that have certain words in the subject line. The various options available here are extensive and may be covered in more detail in a later article.
Gmail also uses little arrows “›” and “»” to give you a little info about who else the email was sent to. Gmail will display a single arrow ( › ) next to all messages sent to your address (not a mailing list), and a double arrow ( » ) next to all messages that were sent only to you. * I believe this feature can be turned on/off via settings.

Ok now. On with the walkthrough!

* This walkthrough assumes you have a Gmail account, and are logged in.
* You can click on the following images to enlarge them!

Step 1 - Click the Settings link at the top of Gmail

Now we are going to add our new email account, click the settings link at the very top of the page.

Step 2 - The “Accounts and Import” tab

Go to the Accounts and Import tab at the top and then click on Add POP3 email account at the bottom, a new window will pop up. Just for an example, the screenshot below also shows a few accounts that I already have setup with this Gmail feature. Do not be concerned with the Send mail from another address button just yet, we will cover that later on.

Step 3 - Fill in the email address that you want to have Gmail check

Step 4 - Fill in your email account information

Gmail will try to automatically add the POP server that it “thinks” is the right one. This however, may not always be correct. Please check with your email service to find out what their settings are. For my example below I am showing settings for the Crossroads Realty email service.

POP server: server.xrdsportal.com, port: 110.

Also on this same screen, check the box next to Label incoming messages. Then click the drop-down menu and select New label… When a small box pops up, enter the name you would like to label all messages from this account with.

Step 5 - Select “Yes, I want to be able to send mail as”…

If this is the first time you are setting up a POP3 account, Gmail will now present you with the following window to also setup the SMTP account. This will enable you to send emails from either your Gmail address or this other address we are setting up right now. If for some reason this is not the case, you must click on the Send mail from another address button that I mentioned back in Step 2.

Step 6 - Fill out your name as you want it to appear to people you email

Step 7 - Select the second option, “Send through … SMTP server”

These settings will differ depending on what email account you are setting up, for my example below I am showing settings for Crossroads Realty email.
SMTP server: server.xrdsportal.com, port: 587.

*** This setting is very important when using Gmail to check your work related emails. People you send email to will see that the email originated from your actual work email address and not your Gmail one. It is often considered very unprofessional to use a personal email address to conduct official business.

Step 8 - Verify your email account

At this step you will need to go access your email however you normally would for the account we are setting up. Check your email by whatever means you used to and find the verification message sent from Google. Get the code that is in the email, and then come back to type the code into the box on this screen and then click the Verify button.

Step 9 - Set your reply option

At this point you should be back at the same screen we started from under the Accounts and Import tab. Look for the setting shown below so that you can set Gmail to Reply from the same address the message was sent to. This makes sure that when you reply to a work email, Gmail will use your work email account to send the response back.

This setting is also very important when using Gmail to check your work email.

Step 10 - Your Done!

Congratulations, you are now setup to have Gmail fully manage your other email account! There are so many ways to customize the Gmail interface that I can not go into all of them in a single article. I plan to write additional articles in the future to go over some of the many optional features in greater detail.

One last step that you may want to do for now is color code each label in your Gmail account. You can do this simply by locating the label on the left side of the Gmail interface, click the small square next to the Label in Gmail’s menu as shown on the right, and pick the color you want. All your emails from the account we just setup will now be color coded so that you can easily tell them from the regular Gmail emails.

Pending Home Sales Rise for Eighth Straight Month

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:22:01 +0000

Pending home sales rose for the eighth straight month in September as new home buyers rushed to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit before it expires at the end of the month, according to an industry group.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that pending home sales rose 6.1 percent to 110.1 from 103.8 in August. It was the largest annual increase on record and marked the longest streak of gains since the measurement began in 2001. It was also the highest level in nearly three years.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast pending home sales, which lead existing home sales by one to two months, to be flat.

"What we're witnessing is a rush of first-time buyers trying to beat the expiration of the tax credit at the end of this month," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "Home values will stabilize sooner rather than over-correcting. That, in turn, will mean wealth stabilization for the vast number of middle-class families and lay the foundation for a durable economic recovery."

The group estimates about 3 million renters are now financially well-qualified to buy a median-priced home, and Yun said if buyers stay within their budget, there will be a sizable pent-up demand.

In the Northeast, the index slipped 2.0 percent to 83.6 in September but remains 16.9 percent above September 2008. In the Midwest the index rose 8.1 percent to 98.2 in September and is 17.8 percent higher than a year ago.

In the South, pending home sales increased 4.9 percent to an index of 109.7 and is 22.8 percent above September 2008. In the West the index jumped 10.2 percent to 143.8 and is 23.7 percent above a year ago.

Congress is moving to extend the credit to buyers who sign sales agreements by April 30. Lawmakers also want to add a $6,500 credit for buyers moving into other homes as long as they have been living in their current residence at least five years.

"We're clearly not out of the woods because an excess of homes remains on the market despite recent improvements," he said. "Although current inventory is getting closer to price equilibrium, foreclosures will continue to enter the pipeline. An extended and expanded tax credit would help absorb this incoming inventory."

The index surged a record 21.2 percent in September from the same period a year-ago.

HP 22″ LCD Monitor for only $120

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:40:02 +0000

Ok, I don’t normally post price cuts or deals here, but this one was too good to not tell everyone about. HP is running a mail-in rebate offer with two of their flat screen LCD monitors right now, giving you a check after the purchase of either one of these monitors, up to a quantity of 10. The smaller monitor is the model L1910, which is a 19-inch Widescreen LCD with a $40 rebate. The larger one, and by far the better deal in my opinion, is the 22-inch Widescreen LCD (model:LE2201W) with a $50 rebate.

NewEgg.com lists the 22-inch monitor originally as $199.99, marked down to a typically low NewEgg price of $169.99. When you add in the mail-in rebate of $50, this brings the total cost down to $119.99.

Each customer or business is allowed to claim the mail-in rebate for up to Ten monitors.

Of course if you live in California, New Jersey, or Tennessee, you will have to pay sales tax… Although NewEgg does have this item marked for Free Shipping, a very nice bonus since monitors are usually pricey items to ship.

Here are some quick specs:

1680 x 1050 Max Resolution
1000:1 Contrast Ratio
Tilt: –5° to +25°
5 ms Response Time
Anti-Glare & Anti-Static
15-pin D-sub (Analog VGA)

This item is covered under NewEgg’s Monitor 30-Day Return Policy and also HP’s 3-year parts, 3-year labor, 3-year onsite limited warranty. Next business day exchange also available.

Product Link:
HP LE2201w Black 22″ 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor

This Rebate Offer Expires on Halloween - October 31st, 2009

Here’s the Rebate Form:
HP Smart Buy Business Monitor Mail-In Rebate

Rogue Anti-Virus is Spreading Again!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:04:52 +0000

In the past week alone, I have cleaned more computers infected with fake or “rogue” anti-virus programs, than I have in the first half of 2009. These programs sneak onto your computer with misinformation and, in some cases, are known to cause havoc. After the fake anti-virus shows you a list of fake infections, it then asks you to register the program in order to remove them. Registration of course, includes a payment typically around $40-$50. These people are scamming for billions of $$$.

The only times I have actually caught these infections BEFORE they were installed, they seemed to always come in an email claiming to be either a Windows Update, Internet Explorer Update, or a Flash Update. Needless to say, these legit programs will NEVER send updates in a lowly email.

Although now, it seems these fake anti-virus programs are also spreading through various forms of scare tactics that lead users to misinformation websites encouraging the use of these programs. My golden rule to you would be… Be wary of any program that you have never heard of that asks you for money.

It was interesting to see on some of these infections that the fake anti-virus had completely re-written the Security Center in Windows. It had all the same fonts/icons/sizes that I almost got fooled for a second until I read the security recommendations under each section that directed the infected user to register their copy of the program in order to be protected.

Once infected, the cure is usually not too painful for the tech savvy of us. Download the most recent version of Malwarebytes from a clean, uninfected computer. Rename mbam-setup.exe to some new random name. Copy over to the infected computer via CDR or USB drive. Install, run, and remove the infections.

Good luck!

Pending Home Sales Up 6.7%, Biggest Gain in 7 Years

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The number of U.S. homebuyers who agreed to purchase a previously occupied home in April posted the largest monthly jump in nearly eight years, a sign that sales are finally coming to life after a long and painful slump. The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday its seasonally adjusted index of sales contracts signed in April surged 6.7 percent to 90.3, far exceeding analysts' forecasts. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001, when pending sales rose 9.2 percent. "This is yet another positive indication that the bottoming process is forming," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. "Now if only prices would stabilize." Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index would edge up to 85 from a reading of 84.6 in March. Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer for future existing home sales. "The pronounced increase in April does indicate that actual existing home sales are poised to rise in the coming month or two," wrote Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist with MFR.

Tax Credit Can Be Used for Down Payment

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The Federal Housing Administration has issued formal guidelines allowing first-time homebuyers to apply a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 toward the purchase of a home with an FHA-backed mortgage. The bad news, for those hoping that the initiative would allow homebuyers to buy a home with nothing down, is that the tax credit can't be used to meet the FHA's 3.5 percent minimum down-payment requirement. But the tax credit can be used as an additional down payment and for other closing costs, which can help borrowers obtain a lower interest rate. For the average FHA-insured mortgage of $182,000, buyers must bring to the closing table or finance about $8,600 in costs on top of their down payment -- about $5,460 in closing costs (typically around 3 percent of the sales price) and $3,185 for FHA's initial 1.75 percent mortgage-insurance premium. In announcing the release of the guidelines, Secretary of Housing Shaun Donovan called them "another important step toward accelerating the recovery of the nation's housing market." The ability to "monetize" the tax credit and apply it to a home purchase will not only help families purchase their first home, Donovan said, but "present an enormous benefit for communities struggling to deal with an oversupply of housing." The National Association of Home Builders has estimated that the tax credit will generate 160,000 home sales -- 101,000 purchases by first-time buyers and 59,000 purchases by existing homeowners who will be able to sell their home and trade up. FHA's market share has grown from 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 23.7 percent in the last three months of 2008. The guidelines for monetizing the first-time homebuyer tax credit have been anxiously awaited for more than two weeks. After Donovan announced the initiative in a May 12 speech to members of the National Association of Realtors (see story), HUD released and abruptly withdrew a set of guidelines that were later described as a draft version. The final guidelines for lenders, spelled out in Mortgagee Letter 2009-15, explain the conditions under which FHA-approved lenders and nonprofits, and federal, state and local government agencies may purchase the tax credits anticipated by homebuyers. Those offering tax-credit advances with second liens can't charge more than 2.5 percent of the anticipated credit, which works out to $200 in fees and costs for the maximum $8,000 tax credit. The second lien can't exceed the total amount needed for the down payment, closing costs and prepaid expenses, and can't result in cash back from the borrower. The homebuyer's 3.5 percent minimum down payment can't come from the lender, the seller, or any other third party or person benefiting from the transaction. But FHA does allow parents, employers and other governmental entities to contribute towards the 3.5 percent minimum down payment. A number of state housing finance agencies offer down-payment assistance loans that can be used to meet FHA minimum down-payment requirements, some of which already incorporate the first-time homebuyer tax credit. "This guidance will enable more housing finance agencies to go forward with programs they've been waiting to launch until the guidance came out," said Garth Rieman, director of housing advocacy and strategic initiatives for the National Council of State Housing Agencies. Rieman said that the mortgagee letter appears to allow housing finance agencies to continue to offer second loans that incorporate the tax credit as one of many underwriting factors, and those loans can still be used to meet the FHA's 3.5 percent down-payment requirement. But the letter does appear to prohibit borrowers who obtain second loans based solely on their eligibility for the first-time homebuyer tax credit from using those funds to meet FHA's minimum down-payment requirement, Rieman said. "We think the guidelines are flexible enough to allow housing finance agencies that already have (down-payment assistance) programs to continue to use them, and to allow them to use them with FHA loans," Rieman said. The process described as "purchases" of tax credits in the FHA's letter to mortgagees is a new approach, Rieman said. "You want to make sure it's done responsibly," and HUD has done an "artful" job balancing the need to stimulate homebuying against risk to the FHA insurance fund, he said. "When you consider all the fees and costs homebuyers must come up with, this will be very valuable in helping them raise the funds to close." The first-time homebuyer tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the purchase price of the home, up to $8,000, for first-time homebuyers purchasing a home before Dec. 1. A first-time homebuyer is anyone who hasn't owned a primary residence in the last three years. Individuals making $95,000 or more and married couples earning $170,000 or more can't claim the credit. Lesser tax credits are available for individuals with a modified adjusted gross income of $75,000 or more but less than $95,000, and for married couples earning $150,000 or more but less than $170,000, and filing jointly. The IRS has created a landing page with links to a Q&A and Form 5405, the form used to claim the credit after closing on a home purchase.

Pending Home Sales Up 6.7%, Biggest Gain in 7 Years

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:53:16 +0000

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday its seasonally adjusted index of sales contracts signed in April surged 6.7 percent to 90.3, far exceeding analysts' forecasts. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001, when pending sales rose 9.2 percent.

"This is yet another positive indication that the bottoming process is forming," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. "Now if only prices would stabilize."

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index would edge up to 85 from a reading of 84.6 in March.

Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer for future existing home sales.

"The pronounced increase in April does indicate that actual existing home sales are poised to rise in the coming month or two," wrote Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist with MFR.

Tax Credit Can Be Used for Down Payment

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:33:06 +0000

The Federal Housing Administration has issued formal guidelines allowing first-time homebuyers to apply a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 toward the purchase of a home with an FHA-backed mortgage.

The bad news, for those hoping that the initiative would allow homebuyers to buy a home with nothing down, is that the tax credit can't be used to meet the FHA's 3.5 percent minimum down-payment requirement.

But the tax credit can be used as an additional down payment and for other closing costs, which can help borrowers obtain a lower interest rate.

For the average FHA-insured mortgage of $182,000, buyers must bring to the closing table or finance about $8,600 in costs on top of their down payment -- about $5,460 in closing costs (typically around 3 percent of the sales price) and $3,185 for FHA's initial 1.75 percent mortgage-insurance premium.

In announcing the release of the guidelines, Secretary of Housing Shaun Donovan called them "another important step toward accelerating the recovery of the nation's housing market."

The ability to "monetize" the tax credit and apply it to a home purchase will not only help families purchase their first home, Donovan said, but "present an enormous benefit for communities struggling to deal with an oversupply of housing."

The National Association of Home Builders has estimated that the tax credit will generate 160,000 home sales -- 101,000 purchases by first-time buyers and 59,000 purchases by existing homeowners who will be able to sell their home and trade up. FHA's market share has grown from 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 23.7 percent in the last three months of 2008.

The guidelines for monetizing the first-time homebuyer tax credit have been anxiously awaited for more than two weeks. After Donovan announced the initiative in a May 12 speech to members of the National Association of Realtors (see story), HUD released and abruptly withdrew a set of guidelines that were later described as a draft version.

The final guidelines for lenders, spelled out in Mortgagee Letter 2009-15, explain the conditions under which FHA-approved lenders and nonprofits, and federal, state and local government agencies may purchase the tax credits anticipated by homebuyers.

Those offering tax-credit advances with second liens can't charge more than 2.5 percent of the anticipated credit, which works out to $200 in fees and costs for the maximum $8,000 tax credit.

The second lien can't exceed the total amount needed for the down payment, closing costs and prepaid expenses, and can't result in cash back from the borrower.

The homebuyer's 3.5 percent minimum down payment can't come from the lender, the seller, or any other third party or person benefiting from the transaction.

But FHA does allow parents, employers and other governmental entities to contribute towards the 3.5 percent minimum down payment.

A number of state housing finance agencies offer down-payment assistance loans that can be used to meet FHA minimum down-payment requirements, some of which already incorporate the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

"This guidance will enable more housing finance agencies to go forward with programs they've been waiting to launch until the guidance came out," said Garth Rieman, director of housing advocacy and strategic initiatives for the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

Rieman said that the mortgagee letter appears to allow housing finance agencies to continue to offer second loans that incorporate the tax credit as one of many underwriting factors, and those loans can still be used to meet the FHA's 3.5 percent down-payment requirement.

But the letter does appear to prohibit borrowers who obtain second loans based solely on their eligibility for the first-time homebuyer tax credit from using those funds to meet FHA's minimum down-payment requirement, Rieman said.

"We think the guidelines are flexible enough to allow housing finance agencies that already have (down-payment assistance) programs to continue to use them, and to allow them to use them with FHA loans," Rieman said.

The process described as "purchases" of tax credits in the FHA's letter to mortgagees is a new approach, Rieman said.

"You want to make sure it's done responsibly," and HUD has done an "artful" job balancing the need to stimulate homebuying against risk to the FHA insurance fund, he said. "When you consider all the fees and costs homebuyers must come up with, this will be very valuable in helping them raise the funds to close."

The first-time homebuyer tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the purchase price of the home, up to $8,000, for first-time homebuyers purchasing a home before Dec. 1. A first-time homebuyer is anyone who hasn't owned a primary residence in the last three years.

Individuals making $95,000 or more and married couples earning $170,000 or more can't claim the credit. Lesser tax credits are available for individuals with a modified adjusted gross income of $75,000 or more but less than $95,000, and for married couples earning $150,000 or more but less than $170,000, and filing jointly.

The IRS has created a landing page with links to a Q&A and Form 5405, the form used to claim the credit after closing on a home purchase.

Economic Overview

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:29:33 +0000

Housing Market Bottom???

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:26:53 +0000

By Julie Haviv

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. housing markets from Florida to California have suffered price drops of 50 percent or more from their peak, but now, at long last, a bottom is within sight, likely in the fourth quarter nationally, according to a report from Moody's Economy.com.

By the end of the housing downturn, nearly 62 percent of the nation's 381 metropolitan areas will have experienced double-digit-percent declines in house prices, peak-to-trough, says the report by chief economist Mark Zandi and a team that includes Celia Chen, senior director of housing economics.

The declines will exceed 20 percent in about 100 metro areas, according to the report, scheduled to be discussed in a Webcast on Thursday. An advance copy was given exclusively to Reuters.

Despite the gloomy data, the report, by an independent subsidiary of Moody's Corp, paints an improving picture of the housing market, which is in the midst of its worst downturn since the Great Depression and is both the source and a major casualty of the world credit crisis.

An improvement could portend a turnaround for the world's largest economy and help stanch losses at U.S. banks, hit hard by soured mortgage securities.

"Despite the darkening national economic outlook and the weak conditions in the housing market, some positive signs give hope that a bottom in the housing market is coming into view," the report said.

"More than three years since the market began correcting, inventories are flattening, prices are coming back down to earth, and sales are approaching stability," the report said.

The outlook, however, assumes stronger action by U.S. policymakers and says that even with further government intervention, the recession will keep the housing market from fully recovering until the end of this year.

Market Update

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:27:09 +0000

20 hours ago

Looking to Buy a House? Read This First

Posted By:Carlo Dellaverson

Is now a good time to buy a home?

It’s a common question these days as potential homeowners wonder if it’s the time to capitalize on low prices, foreclosures and fairly low interest rates. But determining when it’s right to buy isn’t all about the market, Carmen said. It’s about you and the state of your money.

Marc Hedlund, CEO of community finance siteWesabe, said that he’s noticing a lot of people are holding off on buying, even with prices down. They will start the process, and many will even make an offer to a bank for a distressed property, but the bank will take up to 90 days to review it and in that time the offer will most likely go away. Buyers are also noticing that the requirements on them are much higher than they used to be. You need two appraisals instead of one and at least 20% down. Also, you need good credit.

VOTE:

Poll of the Day: Who's Fighting For the Consumer?!

John Ulzheimer said that while a 580 credit score would have gotten you a great mortgage just two years ago, now you need to be “well well well into” the 700s to get the best deal from a lender. His best advice? Start early and give yourself time to prepare. Give yourself 60 – 90 days to do things like pay off your credit card debt and then leaving your cards dormant for the duration of the underwriting process. And hold off on financing anything else, he said. Lenders get nervous when they see inquired on your credit report about any impending debt. So if you need a new car to go along with the new digs, wait until you’ve signed the dotted line on the mortgage first.

Cyberhomes Feed Now Operational

smercer@DelphicSage.com () — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Fidelity National's Cyberhomes.com has been working with the Monmouth MLS for some time now to get an automatic feed of our listings setup. Thanks to their continued devopment, we are happy to announce that the listing feed for Cyberhomes is now 100% operational!

One of the added benefits to partnering with Cyberhomes is that they are now the designated real estate search tool for all AOL users. Previously, the AOL real estate search was powered by Realtor.com until that agreement expired in September of 2007.

We have already started to receive visitors in the form of website traffic directly from Cyberhomes (as well as AOL Real Estate). As of a few weeks ago, Cyberhomes displays all of Crossroads Realty's property listings on a daily updated basis.

Signs of Market Recovery

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:11:55 +0000

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. housing market will begin to recover in the first half of 2009, according to an article he wrote for Emerging Markets magazine published Friday.

Greenspan wrote that the recent slowing in the rate of decline in U.S. home prices is the first positive note in the year-long trauma and that eventually, frozen credit markets will thaw "as frightened investors take tentative steps towards reengagement with risk."

"More conclusive signs of pending home price stability are likely to become visible in the first half of 2009," he wrote.

Sneak Peak

Sun, 25 May 2008 17:11:14 +0000

For a preview of our new, UNFINISHED website, log on to http://beta.crossroadsrealtynj.com
Remember, the site is not complete!! To get a good idea of how the site will work, click Communities, South, Barnegat......If you see your community missing, please let me know. If you have photos of any adult community signs, I need them for the ones that are missing!! We're anticipating public release within 2 weeks. More info to come...

Cool Tip

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:55:33 +0000

From a recent tech tips article: "Every agent in every open house should replace the business cards from the broker tour scattered on the kitchen table with a property alert sign-up form" Use your own contact info and follow up with a drip email campaign....

Great Article by Bernice Ross

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:47:41 +0000

The question is how can you capitalize on today's market conditions to increase your income in 2008?

1. Target active market areas. Regardless of where you work, there are some locations and price ranges that are more active than others. Watch the sales board in your office as well as the MLS statistics. Focus your marketing efforts on those areas that have the most business. If you do face-to-face prospecting such as door knocking, calling on for-sale-by-owners, prospecting owners of expired listings, or holding open houses, make active areas your first priority.

If you normally work the $400,000+ area and the sales are currently active in the $250,000 to $300,000 price range, shift your efforts there. Also, be sure to carefully monitor activity each month. If you observe a shift, follow it.

2. Put pressure on buyers who are negotiating by doing a simultaneous price reduction. Whenever you issue a counteroffer with a lower price, ask the seller to reduce the list price. When the buyers realize that the seller is lowering the price, it places additional pressure on the buyers to take action.

3. The best buyer's market in 35 years: If you use print or Web marketing, use your marketing pieces to proclaim, "2008—the Best Year to Buy a Home in 35 Years!"

Here's how to back up this claim: In April of 1973, mortgage rates were about the same as they are today. Since that time, we have only had mortgage rates this low during 2001 and 2002, the height of the seller's markets where there was little inventory. In the last two major buyer's markets, one in the early 1980s and the other in the early 1990s, the rates were much higher. When I started in the business in 1978, interest rates were at 9.75 percent, en route to 18 to 21 percent in 1980. In the early 1990s, the rates were hovering in the 11 to 12 percent range. Thus, today's buyer's market, with exceptionally low mortgage rates plus a substantial supply of inventory, is the best time in decades to purchase.

4. Show first-time buyers the cost of waiting. There are several different ways that first time buyers lose money by waiting to purchase. The first is loss of tax deductions. In most cases, people who lack a mortgage pay more federal and state income taxes than those who qualify for a mortgage deduction. You can use a mortgage calculator to illustrate this point. For example, assume that a buyer is currently paying $1,500 per month on a rental. If the buyer purchases a $300,000 property with $30,000 down and a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage of $270,000 at 6.25 percent, the buyer actually nets $24,262 more, assuming that appreciation keeps pace with inflation, the buyer owns the property for eight years, and is in the 28 percent bracket.

Another way renters lose money is through wealth accumulation, generally in the form of creating equity by paying down the loan and through appreciation. According to the Federal Reserve, the average homeowner between 1995 and 2004 had a net worth of $184,400, of which approximately $60,000 was due to home ownership appreciation. To account for the difference of $60,000 of wealth accumulation, a $200,000 house would have to decline by 30 percent. Thus, each year a buyer waits to purchase a median-priced home, they lose $6,000 in potential wealth accumulation.

An additional way that renters lose money is through increased interest rates. For example, on a $200,000 mortgage, assume that interest rates increase from six to seven percent. By waiting, the buyer's payments increase by $1,578 each year causing a total loss (in payments and wealth accumulation) of $7,578. If interest rates increase from six to eight percent on that same loan, they will pay an extra $3,221 per year resulting in a total loss of $9,221.

Vacation Home 1031

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:16:22 +0000

Daily Real Estate News | March 10, 2008

IRS Releases Vacation Home Ruling

The Internal Revenue Service recently issued a Revenue Procedure ruling that spells out how vacation properties can qualify for 1031 exchanges, which involve the exchange of investment properties.

The guidance aims to clear up the debate about whether vacation homes are investment or personal use properties. The ruling states that the property must be held by the taxpayer for 24 months. The holding period is broken into 12-month blocks, and during each the property must be rented at the fair market rate for no less than 14 days.

Additionally, the owner can use the property for 14 days or 10 percent of the days rented, whichever is greater, plus a "reasonable" number of days devoted to maintenance tasks. Because it is a safe harbor ruling, experts say failing to comply with all the rules does not mean the exchange will be denied or an audit will automatically occur.

However, they underscore the importance of keeping good records of the property's rental history and the dates the property was occupied by the owner for maintenance.

From Broker Agent News-Short Sale Questions

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:05:47 +0000

Number 10
I can't make my house payments, but I do have an ability to pay back all or part of the negative equity. Also, I want to preserve my credit score...is a short sale right for me?

Probably, not. In cases where the seller can pay back all or part of the negative equity (usually to the 2nd lien holder), it makes sense for them to work out a repayment plan. The lender will then release the lien and allow the home to close.

Number 9

If I pay mortgage insurance and default on my loan, why wouldn't that cover the deficiency amount?

The mortgage insurance is not there for your protection, just the mortgage lender's.

Number 8

Do I have to have my home "Approved" by the lender prior to offering it for sale as a short sale?

No. Technically speaking there is no such thing as being "Short Sale Approved." The actual approval only happens with an accepted offer.

Number 7

I just missed a payment and I know I will miss more...how long does the foreclosure process take and is there time to do a short sale?

The foreclosure process takes differing times depending on your state. In the Midwest a foreclosure can take over a year. In California its taking 6+ months. Generally speaking a well priced short sale being processed by an educated short sale listing agent will sell and close in less than 120 days.

Number 6

Will I still have to pay property taxes if I do a short sale?

Property taxes will always have to be paid as part of any accepted short sale. Whether it's you or the lender, it depends on their policies and the specific agreement you reach while negotiating the short sale.

Number 5

I owe more than my home is worth and I can't make the payment. Do I have to somehow qualify for a short sale?

The simple answer is NO. If someone can't make their payment and they are otherwise insolvent, they qualify for a short sale. Note: insolvent simply means their total debts are great than their assets.

Number 4

Do I have to pay income taxes...I have heard that I will get a 1099. Will the loss the bank takes be treated as a taxable gain to me...the seller...is this true?

It WAS true, now it's not. Consult your Tax Attorney or Qualified CPA. Very recently the tax law was modified and now most people who do a short sale will have no taxes due.

Number 3

How do you, my listing agent get paid...who pays your commission?

The bank will pay the commission along with all the other usual closing costs.

Number 2

Do I have to miss a payment to do a Short Sale?

No. Late last year most major lenders started accepting short sale offers from sellers who have never missed a payment.

Number 1

I want to do a short sale and have a 2nd mortgage, does this make me ineligible?

No. Both of your lenders will need to be satisfied in some way to complete the short sale. If your first lender will be paid off by the sale, then you just negotiate the terms with the second lender. Most short sales do involve 1st and 2nd lien holders.