38 Delaware ST SE GR MICH 49507. Fully rented. Completely updated.

Price Reduced at 1031 Merrifield ST SE GR MICH 49507

Mostly for the people on the Lakeshore of Michigan

In 2012, I Will Sell a Home for US Veteran Facing Hardship Pro Bono

This past Memorial Day I wrote a post entitled Memorial Day 2011: Giving Back To a Veteran in Need. In it, I announced that my company would sell a home for a US service veteran facing hardship for zero commission. My father was a veteran of World War II and Korea, and I asked for the community to let me now if anyone knew of a veteran who could benefit from this. I have not yet, so, being loud mouth I am, I have decided to raise my voice. 

As I stated this past May:

There is one thing I am going to do in my little corner of the world to make a difference to a veteran in the next 12 months. I will list and sell one veteran's house in the next year pro bono. They have to have a special need of some sort (it can be financial) because it is a waste to do it for a vet who is flush with cash or in a short sale, but so long as there is a DD-214 and the possibility of an equity advantage I'll get it done for this veteran gratis as my way of giving back. I can do this for one veteran (or their survivors), and it can be in any of the following counties: Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, Fairfield (CT), Bronx, Queens, or Orange. There is minimal small print to the offer, because I can't guarantee that a buyer brokerage will be cool with forgoing their end, but there will be no listing commission. 

If you know of a veteran who needs to sell and a pro bono arrangement would make a difference between hardship or not, please let me know via phone or email. 

If you are a fellow broker-owner, you feel like following suit and such an arrangement would not be an undue burden to the sustainability to your business, I encourage you to join me.

I have started a Facebook group for like-minded brokerages who feel that this would be a worthy endeavor. If you'd like to join me, please log onto Real Estate Brokers For Veterans group and add your name to the list of brokers- this way, we can have a list of colleagues in the different markets to whom we can refer veterans when the opportunity arises. The late Joe Ferrara often said that real estate licensees should have pro bono obligations just as attorneys. We don't, so this is strictly voluntary. 

If you are a broker and feel this is a worthy cause, please join me. Given the opportunity cost of working a file for no fee when you could be on a paying file, please only do so if you can absorb the work- it is not a suicide pact. Only give if you can. But if you can, please do log on and join. 

And if you know of a US service veteran who may benefit from this in the Metropilitan New York City area, please email me. 

Update: The Fisher House is an excellent alternative for your contributions, large or small. If this works for you, join us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/groups/realestatebrokersforveterans/

 

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In 2012, I Will Sell a Home for US Veteran Facing Hardship Pro Bono

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The 25 “WORST” passwords of 2011.

WRITE MY NAME CORRECTLY! Why spelling ones name right is crucial

There is little more annoying than seeing ones name being butchered. 

 

       

It is astonishing how little effort people put into understanding and writing correctly what is an intricate part of a person. More often than not, in a university town especially, you will encounter people from all over the world and in a lot of cases their names are spelled in a way that is as far apart from the English language basics as Rome is from Beijing.

Nevertheless from wherever people come from, phonetics are not the ways to find out how their names are being spelled correctly. You will, with an American ear, hear often something very different than what it really is.

For instance the “I”, which is in a lot of other languages actually spelled like “E”.

I am a sufferer from that, blessed with a double first name, Ina-Annette, and in Germany always called Ina (that’s pronounced “Eena”), I quickly grew tired after our immigration to constantly correct the wrong spelling. So I switched to my second first name and pretty much everybody here spells and pronounces this correctly (unless I get an uncalled for abbreviation to Anne). But not everybody can and wants to do that.

I understand that people grow annoyed by having their name butchered all the time and put an extra effort into understanding and writing it correctly, even if that is not always 100% successful.

People will appreciate the effort and I have yet to find one who is not willing to spell and explain.

Point being, spelling and pronouncing ones name correctly and making it an important part of getting to know somebody shows personal respect. And who does not want to be respected?

Annette Sievert, Broker

Coldwell Banker Valley Brokers

541 207 5551

asievert@valleybrokers.com

Looks like the “MERS” mess is behind us.

The real estate crash didn’t just happen …

The real estate crash didn’t just happen … it was orchestrated like a symphony.

Nothing as dramatic as seeing home values skyrocket seemingly overnight from the late 1990s until 2005, only to crash like a boulder, has happened just once before … in 1929.

Circumstances then were similar to now: banks were organized as unregulated conglomerates, money was treated like water, speculation was rampant, and unbridled greed was pervasive. Consequently, America along with the rest of the world descended into a Great Depression that lasted more than a decade.

In 2008, the financial markets nearly crashed as catastrophically as it did in 1929.

The crisis started with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, then the fourth largest investment bank in the United States. The self-destruction of Lehman Brothers was no accident. The firm out-leveraged their investments 31 to 1, much of its exposure in subprime mortgages. Once Lehman Brothers failed, others toppled right behind it, setting up a worldwide monetary crisis.

When Secretary of Treasury Henry ‘Hank’ Paulson (and former Goldman Sachs CEO) got down on his knees and begged President George W. Bush and our elected representatives to save the country with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Act of 2008, America and the world was saved from a complete meltdown.

Many, though, would argue that TARP did not save America. Ask the 4 million homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure or short sale if it matters to them that Wall Street was saved. Then ask the nearly 14 million other homeowners stuck in their current homes because they’re either underwater or have less than 5% equity left in their houses. The combined 18 million homeowners — 30% of all homeowners — may have a different take.

So what … or who … caused the Big Real Estate Crash and Great Recession in the first place?

Was it homebuyers who bought more home than they could afford?

Or was it attributable to something much bigger? In fact, wasn’t the Great Recession caused by the systematic elimination of monetary protections that had been in place since the Great Depression and replaced by laws enacted in the name of ‘deregulation’?

And was there a master conductor, if you will, waving his wand before the biggest symphony orchestra of all-time?

I’ll let you be the judge.

First, let’s cover the 3 laws that led to the Real Estate Boom And Bust.

3 laws responsible for the real estate boom and bust

Each of these laws served to deregulate the banking, investment and insurance industries but had far-reaching effects on the real estate market in particular and the economy as a whole.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act – Also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act essentially took down the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

Glass-Steagall was enacted to prevent another stock market crash like the one in 1929. And it worked. There hadn’t been another instance of a Great Crash, Great Depression, or even Great Recession until 2008, nine short years after passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Glass-Steagall was specifically designed to keep commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies as separate businesses. Clearly defined walls were established so that one large financial institution could not make loans to homeowners, for example, then package those loans and sell them to investors, and finally bet against any losses by insuring those investments through their insurance division.

Once the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed, the rush was on. Like sharks in a pool of little fish, big financial companies swallowed smaller companies and rolled commercial banking, investment banking, and insurers into giant conglomerates.

From then on, one company could control everything, and greed rather than sound business judgment and wise investment choices took hold.

1. The commercial banking division of a conglomerate could incentivize mortgage brokers to approve loans for homebuyers — many of them unqualified — in return for high commissions.
2. Then the investment division could sell off the risks associated with any bad loans to investors as high-yield securitized bonds.
3. Finally, the insurance division could arrange for reinsurers outside the company to cover losses.

Everyone was heady with the new business model that generated whopping profits, skyrocketing stock prices, and generous bonuses … until the entire upside-down pyramid built on funny money came crashing down on all of us.  

Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000– This law deregulated derivatives trading, which fed into the securitization of mortgage loans into bonds. By bundling bad loans into large bond packages, then divvying them up and selling them off to bondholders through the investment divisions, the mortgage divisions could hedge their bets against losses at even greater margins.

Responsible Lending Act of 2005– Otherwise known as the Loan Shark Protection Act, this law was anything but responsible since it stopped individual states from enacting laws to protect consumers against predatory lending practices.

The Responsible Lending Act of 2005 also ushered in subprime loans.

By signing up for subprime loans, homebuyers who would otherwise be unable to secure a mortgage loan due to bad credit ratings, low income, and no cash for down payments could now move into the home of their dreams … or so they thought.

Subprime loans were tied to ARM loans and teaser rates that made it possible for homebuyers to afford monthly payments. For a while. Until the ARM rates reset.

The result? Within a year of passage, the Responsible Lending Act of 2005 precipitated foreclosures and Short Sales in such large numbers that it eventually took down the entire real estate market, including homeowners who never heard of subprime mortgages.

The conductor

You might think these 3 laws just happened. They didn’t. One man was behind them all.

His name is Phil Gramm, who served as Senator (R-Texas) from 1978 through 2002. He was the 1) ‘Gramm’ of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 2) one of five cosponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, and 3) one of the chief lobbyists for the Responsible Lending Act. At the time of this last legislation, Gramm was with financial conglomerate UBS, which had acquired PaineWebber as a direct result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

It’s Judy … your North Shore Chicago real estate agent.

* * * * *

JUDY CHAPMAN | Live the life you dream

Residential Sales ∙ Residential Rentals ∙ Short Sales

                  

Koenig & Strey | 1925 Cherry Lane | Northbrook, IL 60062

Judy@ChgoNorthShore.com | Office: 847.749.3811 

 

Up until a year ago, I sold real estate in Orlando FL, explaining why you’ll see many, many posts related to the Orlando real estate market. Now I’m back home in ‘Sweet Home Chicago’, selling real estate primarily in the North Shore and West of North Shore Suburbs.

If you’re interested in relocating to Florida, contact me to get recommendations of some very fine Realtors^® all over the state. I can also refer you to some of the hardest working Short Sale real estate agents throughout the country.

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Please pause for cognitive thought before engaging speech.

We have all been there. Something has been said and we just want to “go off” and shoot from both barrels.

And while spewing a barrage of aspersions may be cathartic or therapeutic, it rarely provides anything constructive or positive. It is much more likely to raise hackles and trigger every defense mechanism inherent in the human psyche.

Exercising self-control first, rational thought second, and conciliatory speech third will go a long ways towards achieving a resolution. Knowing when NOT to talk is one of the hardest behaviors to learn and practice.

But it is the primary difference between a problem solver and a deal killer!

All content, including text, original art, photographs and images, is the exclusive property of Coweta Fayette Real Estate, Inc., and may not be used without the expressed written permission of Coweta Fayette Real Estate Better Homes and Gardens Metro Brokers, Newnan Georgia. All information is believed to be accurate but is not warranted, Copyright 2003-2009. Richard Weisser REOS, E-Pro. licensed Auctioneer. 770-827-6225.
Learn more about Coweta County and Fayette County Georgia Real Estate, and to search the entire Georgia MLS for free with no registration required visit CowetaFayetteRealEstate.com! Photos of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. North Georgia Photos.

 

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