Fort Lauderdale Real Estate | Buying a house or a condo in Fort Lauderdale | Selling your house or condo in Fort Lauderdale FL
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Direct: (954) 529-5505
Office: (954) 396-5900
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2810 E Oakland Park Blvd Ste 200
Fort Lauderdale, FL
(954) 396-5900
Cash-tra-tion (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
Everyone knows that tomorrow, Tuesday November 2, 2010 is the Mid-Term Elections.
What does voting has to do with real estate? It has lots to do with real estate. There are zillions of laws and regulations affecting real estate: government taxes, municipal taxes, our schools, our parks, our streets, our neighborhoods, our police, mortgages, etc…
Your vote will make a difference and will be part of ”the solution”, a solution or your solution. And, if you think that all candidates are crooks, then, vote for the least crook of them all BUT VOTE!!!. If you don’t vote you are part of ”the problems”. Non-voters are wimps, cowards and lazy but they are the first ones to benefit from the system, bitch at it and demand more from it.
See you at your local voting hall tomorrow bright and early! 
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39909157/
Click on the above link for an article appearing today in MSNBC describing the horror story now going on between foreclosing Lenders and the Title Insurance Industry.
Earlier this month, I took up this problem with a major title insurer in our Fort Lauderdale market….who wishes all their cases were Bank of America, since that Lender gave Fidelity Title Insurance Company, his parent company, a blanket warranty of title for all properties they foreclose! He did not yet have an answer on what his company would do if the property was not foreclosed by Bank of America.
This could make all unsold REO’s non-saleable, except a sale to a less than knowledgeable Buyer that is willing to accept the risk of an invalid title, if that appears as an exception on Schedule B to Title Policies because
foreclosing Lenders deeding the property would not guarantee the insuring Title Insurance Company against this risk.
This MERS caused mess continues to be a tremendous problem; Lenders that developed and funded this MERS system, are apparently now having 2nd thoughts about its legality, because even they appear to be reluctant to
guarantee subsequent Title Insurers, and therefore REO Buyers, of good title.
In my view, the Title Insurers and the American Land Title Insurance Association, are correct in their believe there is a legal risk that the REO lender may not have acquired good title by foreclosure. The Uniform Land
Transactions laws, in my view, have been quite clear on this for centuries: Mortgages, and any subsequent Assignments thereof, must be recorded in the County’s land records, and notes setting forth the requirements for repaying that mortgage, must be endorsed to the mortgage assignee.
While this plays out, what will Lenders do with their foreclosures and their subsequent REOs? Are we, Tax Payers, to pick up that tab to bail out the banks for their deliberate screw-up?
I am not sure who is worse anymore: The Mafia’s bullyish scare tactics or the Lenders devious administrative practices?
All this could have been avoided if Lenders would have followed the laws of mortgage records and foreclosure procedures.
Lately you’ve all learned of the foreclosure moratotium placed by major banks and of the attack on MERS’ sloppy recording paperwork.
David J. Stern is an attorney who’s law firm processed tons of sloppy foreclosure closings. Watch this investigative report video published on TBWSDaily.com: http://www.thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/archive/1/54154/. You be the judge of this report.
EVERYONE HAS A SPECIALTY. The past five years of radioactive real estate decay forced almost every Realtor® to change their practice by selling tedious bottom-feeding priced distressed sales (short-sales or foreclosures). Despite that real estate depression, I managed to survive through it, humbly, without diverting my real estate practice towards “short-sales” or “foreclosures” .
I am a professional luxury residential real estate agent who does just that: My specialty is to selling properties above $350,000 – matching buyers and sellers to purchase homes or condos on or near the beaches as primary residences or as a second vacation homes. And, I excel in that market segment.
For the purpose of this essay, let’s leave out investors because srewd investors buy stricly price or numbers that make profitable sense void of all personal emotions. And, let’s not include distressed sale properties (foreclosures and short-sales) for they are really not fair game against regular market value sales.
Ironically, when that same wise business investor who buys a home for his/her own personal residence, his viewpoint of negotiating changes considerably - he becomes a typical homebuyer now encumbered with emotions that will cloud his rational thoughts.
A good residential purchase is based on the present comparable sales in one neighborhood. However, this is when diligent investigation come into play to sort out differences like why a 2,050 sq. ft. pool house, 2-car garage with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms sold $50K more that the same house 4 houses down the street? Perhaps the higher priced home was considerably upgraded inside (new kitchen, bathrooms, tile or wood flooring, etc.); or maybe it only had less obvious improvements like a new roof and windows; or maybe the lot is larger; or maybe the pool is larger with hot-tub, screen enclosed and lush landscaping with new lawn sprinkler system; or it is near some water views or further away from the busy street.
But the best deal is that one property that you’ll find where your heart will soothe your emotions and you will instantly know that the whole family will be happy and comfortable living in it. At that point, the extra few thousand dollars won’t really matter.
John Bourassa, Realtor® with RE/MAX Partners selling luxury homes and condos in Fort Lauderdale Beach areas.
Call my “Sell” phone (954) 529-5505.
Real estate in Fort Lauderdale, FL is good this summer. I don’t know how the rest of Florida or the United States are doing, except for what I read in the papers, but sale activities are still good down here mainly because prices of luxury homes and ccondos are so affordable and the interest rates on loans are excellent.
Call my “Sell” Phone (954) 529-5505
John Bourassa, Realtor with RE/MAX Partenrs selling Luxury homes and condominiums in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
CNBC reported that The National Asociation of Realtors ® (NAR) revealed this week that “The Realtors® said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in May, fell to a record low 77.6 from 110.9 in April. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a smaller decline of 12.5 percent in May.” a 30% drop.
Meanwhile, in Broward County, Florida, sales of homes and condos combined rose from 1150 Pending Home Sales in April 2010 to 1475 in May 2010 (a 22% increase) and rose agian from May 2010 to 2619 in June 2010 (a 43% increase).
Life is good in Fort Lauderdale, FL and our homes and codos are now affordably cooool!
John Bourassa, Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Partners in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Call my “Sell” phone (954) 529-5505
Florida Realtors® News reported this morning that in addition to Congress extending the homebuyer tax credit closing deadline from June 30, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2010, the U.S. Senate also passed another bill last evening previously passed by the House. Congress once again reauthorized a short-term extension for the National Flood Insurance Program to Sept. 30, 2010. The bill, HR 5569, makes the program retroactive to May 31, 2010, the date the program went on hiatus.
Both bills, however, still need President Obama’s signature to become law, but that’s expected to happen quickly.
John Bourassa, Realtor® servicing Fort Lauderdale Beaches, FL. Call my “Sell” phone (954) 529-5505
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The United States House of Representatives has just passed HR 5623, the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010, by a vote of 409-5. This bill extends the deadline for closing tax credit eligible transactions from June 30 to September, 30, 2010. The bill moves to the Senate where the outcome is much less certain. The REALTOR(R) Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale will continue to update you as the events move forward.
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