Wellington Homes and More...

Wellington Fl Polo Season Is Back!

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:29:25 -0600

Wellington Fl Polo Season Is Going To Kick Into High Gear!

Wellington Fl Polo Is Back! The Wellington Polo season is going to be very active this season. We are very excited to see how well our Polo season rebounded here in Wellington Fl.

As you know the entire world media was right here in Wellington Florida last year to mourn the tragedy of the 21 prized Polo ponies falling down dead right before one of the polo tournaments. I wrote about the Polo Horses Tragedy here.

Wellington Fl Polo community recovered from this tragic event and this year we will be having more tournaments and more teams coming here than last year. This is good news. Last year, the concern on how the downturn in the economy was going to affect the polo world across the globe kept many teams off the fields and they did not travel outside of their countries. But the global economic turn down was not as bad as was expected so this year- we will once again welcome Polo teams from around the world to come to the Polo capital of the world- Wellington Florida!

Nine teams are scheduled bring their mallets and play at the International Polo Club Palm Beach's highest rank- 26 goal tournaments.
Thirteen teams are gong to be playing in the less competitive 20-goal tournanents. Last year there were only 9 teams playing so this is great news.

Venezuelan Polo Team Lechuza Caracas is also going to return in spite of his 21 prized Polo horses dying here last year from the improper mixing of vitamins from a lab in Florida.

Polo teams are going to be representing:

United States
Great Britain
Italy
Canada
Venezuela
Argentina
Columbia

One of the highlights this year is going to be the return of Cambiaso who is considered to be the best Polo player in the world.

This is the time of year you get to see a lot of celebrities around the Polo matches and in the stands. Ken Adams is a long time resident of Wellington and now is 80 years old. He is still a season ticket holder and has been every year. He was the one who escorted Prince Charles and Princess Diana to the Polo game when they came to Wellington Florida for Polo. Prince Charles plays Polo. You may also get to see Tommy Lee Jones with his Polo team in town over the season. He eats often at the Players' Club right here in Wellington Florida.

The 2010 Wellington Florida Polo Season begins on January 3rd with the Iglehart Cup. The season will finish off with the U.S. Open Polo Championship which is held March 25th through April 18th. Most of the games are held on Sundays. For tickets please contact the Polo Club at 561-204-5687.

It is also great news if you have to sell your Polo homes! This is the time to get your Polo properties on the market in time for the International clients who are going to be real estate shopping in between their Polo matches! One out of every 4 buyers in the state of Florida are International buyers- this is great news for the Wellington Florida real estate market. Contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset for more information about selling your Polo properties or buying a Polo property so you have your own place to stay during the Polo seasons each year.

T o view Florida Short Sales- Click here . We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

Wellington Fl Polo Season Is Back! was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Announcing Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource Certification- SFR

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:11:43 -0600

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Nestor and Katerina Gasset
Contact Person: Katerina Gasset
Company Name: International Properties and Investments, Inc.
Telephone Number: 561-753-0135
Fax Number: 561-753-3342
Email Address: CoachKaterina@gmail.com
Web site address: http://www.short-sales-Florida.com

Area Agents Get Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource Certification.

Wellington- Florida, December 17, 2009-

Nestor Gasset, Realtor®, CIPS, ABR, GRI-Broker-owner of International Properties and Investments, Inc along with his wife, Katerina Gasset, Realtor®, CIPS; have earned the National Association of Realtors® Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource Certification known as SFR.

Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset have been helping homeowners negotiate short sales since the 1990’s. They help homeowners throughout the state of Florida primarily in Palm Beach County, Broward County, St Lucie County, Martin County and Dade County get approved for a short sale instead of just letting their homes go to foreclosure.

They are active Realtors® and members of the Realtor Association of the Palm Beaches. Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset created a website over a year ago where you can find out about short sales that has helped a lot of homeowners, buyers and real estate practitioners to understand the process of the short sale. The site is: http://short-sales-Florida.com. They will have their short sale manual/book published in the spring of 2010.

Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset have a high closing rate of getting short sales approved by the lenders. Area attorneys also refer their clients to Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset to negotiate the short sales for their clients.

It is highly recommended by lenders, the US Treasury department and others that if you are going to have to do a short sale on your property- that you need to use agents with short sale experience. Just because an agent may have taken a class or received a designation does not constitute the experience and patience that is required in successfully negotiating short sales. Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset have both. You can contact their office at 561-753-0135 if you are having a hard time making your mortgage payments.

“You all are unbelievable. I have never been in a situation like this where my wife and I were in over our heads and people just helped like you all! It seemed like we could literally just sit back and things got done. Yes there was a little work on our end but not much, and any work that you needed was clearly given to us! This was a stressful time and rebuilding will be a bit stressful as well, but without your help it would have been a million times worse!!! I mean that 100%,,You all saved us from a whole lot of stress that would have been for a long time too! I will recommend you to ANYONE going through this, although I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Chady and Misty Snyder”

For Additional Information:

Web site address: http://www.short-sales-Florida.com

International Properties and Investments, Inc. Wellington Florida 33414

# # #

Sharing Moments! From Our Wellington Florida Homeschool Family To Yours.

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:37:14 -0600

Sharing Moments! From Our Wellington Florida Homeschool Family To Yours:

We are activists! Activists for Homeschool! I blog about our homeschooling adventures and activities because many homeschooling parents in our area read our blog. In fact, because of our connection of homeschool and because we share that connection- we get to list homeschooling family homes and find homes for homeschooling families moving to our area.

Our newest short sale listing is a seller who homeschools her 4 children and felt a connection before she even called us to list her home because she knows we homeschool. This is why it is so important to not just blog about and with your keywords to get the organic search but also to share who you are, what you do, what you love, what your passions are and what is important to you. Like kind attracts like kind. You will get connected!

This past month we had a lot of fun in homeschool. We homeschooled 5 children to adulthood and one more, our 6th child is now 7 and he is also homeschooling. This past month he started to take Archery classes at a Christian nature center. He loves to go to Archery classes.

At home we completed a very interesting unit study on Ginger in November. We finished it off with a great lapbook on Ginger, the history of ginger, the history of gingerbread men and cookies. We read the Gingerbread Man story and then our son did a presentation on the flannel board retelling the story of The Gingerbread Man from recollection which was extremely well done. He was excited to do this report for dad- the principal of our school :). Here are some photos of the lapbook we finished. Lapbooking is such a great way to internalize the learned material. It stays with the kids. As the children get older, they treasure their lapbooks and enjoy sharing them with other family members. This of course, reinforces the subject matter over and over again. The biggest problem in schools is retention and comprehension. Our son can retell you the entire story 3 months from now without missing a beat.

He also learned how to make Gingerbread men cookies. He did not like the way they tasted so he gave them to his friends. But he loved making them. The reason that ginger was added to breads, cookies and cakes in the Medieval times was as a food preservative. I learned something new too! Another perk of homeschooling- I get to learn so much too! Of course as in any unit study we had math, art, social studies, studies, English, grammar, reading, writing and understanding plots, characters and settings in stories. It makes studying so much more meaningful when you can apply it across all the subjects and in real life situations.

We ended our ginger unit study with making a gingerbread house. Of course, he knows that making gingerbread houses is a tradition that started in Germany many centuries ago but now gingerbread houses are most popular and prominent in the United States.

Make it a Ginger Sweet Day!

Sharing Moments! From Our Wellington Florida Homeschool Family To Yours.was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Florida Short Sales- What Do You Do To Keep The Buyer From Walking?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:01:28 -0600

Florida Short Sales- What Do You Do To Keep The Buyer From Walking? If you work with short sales you know that you work hard, calling the banks every day, moving your file along at a snail's pace yet sinking your teeth in and not letting go until you get the right answer for your seller from their short sale lender only to find that out that buyer is going to walk the day before the approval letter shows up!

We received the following email from Brad Officer. I asked him if I could use his email and answer his question in a post. So I have his permission to reprint his question here:

Subject:	Short Sale question from another agent

Message:	Hi Nestor and Katerina, I'm a remax agent in North Florida. I work mostly on the sellers side and I do mostly short sales. I have a heck of a time with buyers flaking out and canceling agreements before we ever hear back from the banks. Many times they just find another home that they like better. Curious if you guys are putting any "early termination" clauses in your agreements? Thanks for your thoughts! Brad Officer RE/MAX Specialists Jacksonville, FL

We also work with sellers and our buyer agents work with buyers. We do mostly short sales also.

This is a Florida agent and we will talk Florida short sales here. The suggestions we place here are based on what you can do in Florida. Disclosure: I am not an attorney and I am not giving legal advice. Please seek the advice of a professional attorney before implementing any contract changes or adding any verbiage to your contracts or offers or documents.

The FAR BAR AS IS contract and the FAR short sale addendum are the documents mostly used in short sale offers here in Florida. But the short sale addendum is a very poorly written addendum and more to serve the buyer’s interests and not the sellers, in our opinion. There is NO law that says you have to use this particular short sale addendum. You can have your broker or your attorney draft a short sale addendum that will help your sellers. So the first thing that I would do is get a short sale addendum that will work for your clients.

If you are using the FAR short sale addendum you can add an addenda that says that the earnest money is to be deposited with the sellers’ title company or escrow agent upon the signing of all parties to the contract for sale and purchase.

We know how long each bank takes to process their short sales. Based on that information is how long we counter the buyer in their time for acceptance section of the short sale addendum. If it is Bank of America- we ask the buyers agent to make sure that their buyer understands there may be a longer wait than they might expect. We go 120 days on our addendum for BofA short sales.

For Chase short sales we put 90 days, Bank United we can use 60 days and so on. We send the buyers agent a notice to give to their buyer explaining how a short sale works and how long it could take along with important facts. You must get up front from the buyers agent how committed their buyer is and if their buyer walks before the time for acceptance has passed- they will not have their deposit money returned.

We still have had contracts where the buyer walks away from their deposits. We had one short sale where the buyer walked away from $5000 deposit. So it happens no matter how much you try to hold it together.

Communication is the key. We are in constant contact with the buyer agents. Whenever there is movement on a file, we let them know. This helps to keep them in the contract.

For more information about Florida Short Sales- click here.

Florida Short Sales- What Do You Do To Keep The Buyer From Walking? was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Olympia- Wellington Fl Homes For Sale- Find Your Olympia Wellington Home Here!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:07:19 -0600

Olympia- Wellington Fl Homes For Sale- Find Your Olympia Wellington Home Here!!

We just got a call from a buyer who was looking for an Olympia Wellington Fl Home. He and his wife had flown down here to preview homes because they are relocating to Wellington Fl. They had met with the sales rep at Minto Homes that are selling Olympia Wellington new construction homes in the subdivision of Olympia in Wellington.

As they were admiring the new model homes they felt uneasy about buying brand new construction in this market especially with so many builders going out of business in Florida. They asked to view the Olympia in Wellington Fl resales. The news sales reps only show their own product, the new construction. So they went on line to find an agent who could show them homes for sale in Olympia in Wellington Florida and found our blog and search site, read our Active Rain blog and felt comfortable in working with us.

Currently there are 89 Olympia Wellington homes for sale. There are over 1000 Olympia Wellington homes in the Olympia subdivision in Wellington Fl. The price ranges are as low as $255,000 to as high as $1,250,000. The luxury section in the Olympia community-Wellington is tucked in the community with streets lined with Palm Trees.

Currently there are 12 pending Olympia homes in Wellington for sale. That means that there are contracts on these homes and the closing should be taking place in the near future.

This past year there 112 Olympia homes sold. That is a good amount of homes to have sold in a declining market. Olympia at Wellington is a convenient place to live with lots of amenities.

54 of those sold homes are listed in the MLS- (the data that Realtors® have access to with the most reliable source of sales information) as Wellington Short Sales. We believe the figure may be a bit higher than 54 because at the beginning of this year the field was not being used by most agents in logging these sales as short sales. Now it is a mandatory field but it was not that way before. We also know that some agents did not list their Wellington Short Sales as short sales so that number is not totally accurate.

17 of the homes in Olympia at Wellington that sold last year were bank owned properties.

Take a tour around the amenities of Olympia Wellington Fl in our video below:

If you would like to do a search for your Olympia Wellington Fl Homes For Sale you can search right now, right here-

The search screen below is a search of the homes for sale in Olympia - Wellington Fl. You can see all the homes for sale right now in Olympia of Wellington Florida. If you want to search other areas just change the search fields below. It is interactive. You can use it right here and now! No clicking to another site. Just search for your home right here. Have fun and don't hesitate to call Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset with any help you may need at 561-753-0135.

What Are Your Income Goals For 2010? Name It To Claim It!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:38:34 -0600

What Are Your Income Goals For 2010? Name It To Claim It!

As a real estate agent you are running your own small business. A big part of owning a business is knowing where you are going. If you don't know your goals you are not going to ever be able to measure your progress from year to year. You either have an entrepreneur attitude or an employee mentality while one will create growth in your business the latter will stifle your outcome.

Choose 2010 to be your year.

Set your goals for 2010 for your business and your personal life and then write them down. Those who write their goals down are more likely to see their goals come to fruition than those who don't write them down.
There is something magical about writing them down.

Don't dismiss your dreams. God does not give us our dreams without also showing us the way in which to achieve them.
The first step in realizing your dreams and your goals is to make a decision to go for it.
There is something within you that wants to think bigger.

In order for you to reach your goals they must a strong desire to have your dreams come true. If you have not ever read Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich- ask for that book for Christmas. A burning desire is what carries us to our goals. Knowledge alone can not do it.

Because as soon as you make the decision on what your income goal is going to be for 2010- I can promise you that there will be obstacles thrown in your path. Without the burning desire to get through those obstacles and to look for the solutions- you will simply stop reaching for your goals.

This is one of the reasons that I tell you about our successes- to motivate you and help you believe in yourself.
If we can do it, so can you.
I talk about our income levels because people don't want to learn from those that have not been there.
When I want to learn something I search out the most successful person I can find in that field or subject. If it is about making money or being successful in business than I want to find a mentor or a coach that is actually making the kind of money that I want to make. It is not about showing off - it is about helping to spark that flame that is inside of you too.

Set your goal of how many hours you are going to work each week and which day is going to become your day off- you will need this in order to achieve your income goals for 2010.

80% of your income comes from 20% of your work. Learn to improve the 20%.

That is why when I coach agents I tell them to spend time improving their strengths not their weaknesses. You can hire others and delegate that which you are weak at doing.

Look at where you spent your time this past year. How did that work out for you? Where will you allocate your time next year?

Einstein said: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Part of you achieving your goals in 2010 is to learn to allocate your time on different things. You need to figure out how many hours you are going to work to meet your income goal.

There are only 24 hours in a day- I have been trying to figure out how to make it 26 hours- no luck yet!
Take your income goal and divide it by the amount of hours you have to work. This will tell you how much money you need to make each hour that you work.
Of course, in real estate we get commissions so the formula is more for giving a general idea.
This will give you what you need to raise your value to.
For instance if you want to earn $160,000 in 2010 and you have 40 hours a week to devote to your business; your income value is $78 per hour. If you are excited about working for $78 per hour than go for it.
As you go along in the year and you find that you are spending 50 hours a week on your business, your hourly value dropped. So that means you are going to have to raise the price of the house that you sell in order to keep working towards your goal. You also have to remember this is gross so in order to achieve a higher net you will need to figure out the income generating activities that are increasing that net and not just the gross.

After you know what your income goal is and how you are going to allocate your time, the next thing to do is to commit yourself to doing this.

You have to be 100% committed or else when an obstacle shows up, you will shrink and move away from your goals.

Before there is a breakthrough- there is a breakdown.

If you are working towards your income goal for 2010 there will be changes that will take place- both internally and externally.

If you are looking for support through this you should consider hiring a coach. All people on the top of their game have coaches and mentors.
I have only 2 openings for one on one coaching at this time. A coach can help you break through your limited beliefs that hold you back from your full potential.

I am in the process of developing some great products to help you reach your goals and I will be setting up some group coaching sessions as well as some webinars and teleconferences to help you reach your goals in 2010.

If you are interested in knowing when the teleconferences and webinars will be- please fill out the form below. I will then add you to my mailing alert system and be able to send you an email whenever I create a new coaching class, program or host a teleconference call.

Another program I highly recommend is my SEO TO THE TOP webinar sessions. There are nine classes and the sessions are recorded in case you miss any of the live sessions. Our next session starts on January 13th, so you can start your new year off with a new goal towards your income goals by gaining the knowledge that you can apply right away and get sellers to call you to list their homes.

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Wellington Florida Real Estate News: Chinese Drywall- If You Have Chinese Drywall There May Be Help

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:57:46 -0600

lington Florida Real Estate News: Chinese Drywall- If You Have Chinese Drywall There May Be Help on the way.

I wrote a detailed post about Chinese Drywall Claims May Get Your Insurance Canceled and since then there have been lawmakers here in Florida and other states plagued with Chinese drywall working on some solutions.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development will issue some guidelines for homeowners who have Chinese drywall to follow in order to apply for federal money. Senator Bill Nelson (D) has been one of the supporters of getting relief to homeowners here in Florida. While I don't agree with him on most issues- this is one of the issues that I do feel needs to be addressed by HUD because it was the Federal Government who supports buying products made in China. Since we can't sue the companies in China for sending this horror of a material someone has to be held accountable. The builders and developers who used this drywall have mostly all filed bankruptcy and are no longer in business. The builders that are still here are doing a lot to help the homeowners who are living in homes that they sold that have the chinese drywall. In fact, some builders are paying for the homeowners to temporarily move out of their homes, paying for their expenses and helping them as they remove all the chinese drywall and replace it.

The HUD secretary came to Florida to see some of the damage we are talking about. It is hard to understand the extent of this awful drywall as it can destroy the plumbing, the foundation and lead to serious health problems. We had one family that was buying one of our short sale listings. They owned one of the homes with the Chinese Drywall. They had two children who were getting sick. It was from the sulfuric gas that the chinese drywall leaks and these poor kids were so sick that they had to move into a hotel until we could get the short sale approved. It was because of the health of these children that WAMU (now Chase) worked very quickly to get the short sale approved so these little children could be in a home again.

HUD said that homeowners may be able to get help through the Community Development Block Grant program. But the problem, as usual, with government programs, is that that person saying that you may get help from a program doesn't even know if that is truly the case or not. Well, this was not the case because the Block Grant program is for poverty areas and low income people. Most of the home that have the chinese drywall are middle class to high end homes. Most of the people affected are people who are not poor. But the Cbinese drywall can certainly land any middle income earner into the poor house because you have to basically gut your entire house to get at the drywall and underlying problems it causes.

So now the HUD secretary sent Senator Nelson a letter saying that they are working with the guidelines so that these homeowners can get assistance to repair their homes.

Here are some photos from the Florida Health Department. The first photo is the black corrosion that is caused by Chinese Drywall the other corrosions are not black and are normal corrosion of copper, wires, etc. Please seek out the advice of a licensed contractor if you suspect your home to contain Chinese drywall. The easiest way to tell is to check the back of piece of drywall. If it says, MADE IN CHINA- you have Chinese drywall:

The Federal Government has received over 2,276 complaints from homeowners and more than two thirds of them are from Florida. I am sure that more are affected that don't even know they are and more still that have not filed complaints.

For information about Florida Short Sales- click here.

Wellington Florida Real Estate News-Chinese Drywall- If You Have Chinese Drywall There May Be Help was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Who Else Wants To Know The Secrets To Getting To Page One On Google?

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:01:31 -0600

Who Else Wants To Know
The Secrets To Getting To Page One On Google?

Discover Simple and Effective SEO Strategies That Will Get You To The Top!

From The Keyboard of: Katerina Gasset
Date: December 2009

Dear Friend,

Do you think you could learn something from a someone who coaches individual agents and business owners one on one in how to get to page one of Google with keywords that prospects are actually searching with?

Do you want to see real results from your online marketing? Understanding and applying sound SEO principles and action steps is crucial to the success of your online marketing.

I totally understand about how frustrating it is to understand SEO and if what you are doing is right or wrong and how do you actually measure if what you are doing is working? I take what the SEO experts say in Geek Talk and translate it in a way that you can understand and relate to.

When I first started on the web; when it was just starting to be the thing to do for real estate agents back in 1997 and 1998 I fell for every scam out there! I was going to all those seminars about websites at NAR and other places. I remember when we bought all into the Realtor.com hype and owned Know Your Neighborhood, Advanced Access and Homegain sites all touting how they were the next best thing since life's bread to a real estate agent's business. What they all failed to say was that just by getting on line did not guarantee you would be found! I was just another needle in a giant haystack.

Needless to say after spending thousands of dollars on sites and stuff that was not generating not even one single lead I got fed up with it all, gave it all up and went totally offline in 2001.

I did not go back online again until March of 2007. Before that date I decided that if I was going to make the internet work for our real estate business then I was going to have to understand:

How are prospects going to find me?

What are people who are making money online doing to get found?

What is SEO, what does it mean and how will understanding SEO help my business?

What do I have to do right now to get to the top of Google searches fast?

Earl Nightingale, the dean of self development said that by studying any field you are interested in learning just one hour per day that within 5 years you will be a national expert on the subject. Since I knew this and had applied this many times in my life when I really wanted to learn something I got to work right away but not 1 hour a day but 5 to 8 hours a day.

Each night I would start studying Internet marketing and SEO starting at about 8 p.m. I would study until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. This time I was not going to learn from companies that had something to gain from me. I was not going to learn this SEO stuff from real estate website or anyone selling websites. Real estate agents seem to be targets for these scam artists.

I sought out the business men and women who sold widgets online and were very successfull at taking over their niches. I bought a lot of different SEO programs, tutorials and ebooks on everything about Internet marketing.

After 1.5 years of intense study I went to Nestor and told him that I think it was time to get back online and do it right this time. We got our first website knowing that I would be in the Google sandbox for about 6 months I had a plan to speed up the indexing process which I did and we were found on Google within 4 months for our major keywords. That site was not the best so after our domain had a little aging I switched to the real estate site that is customizable at Point 2 agent. From there I started to blog on Active Rain and that was all she wrote! The rest is history!

Coaching agents to get to the top of Google started out to be more a test to see if this stuff really works and much to our pleasant surprise far surpassed my hopes for its' success, it was. I am a full time agent so I know what you are going through. I have been there, done that and I work in the trenches just like you do.

Agents in my coaching program are taking their keywords and literally taking over page on on Google within 48 hours to 1 week of applying proper SEO techniques. These agents were spending thousands of dollars on SEO webmasters, website optimization programs and adwords. Agents are now saving thousands of dollars a year by simply following my SEO program.

Since I can only coach 10 agents per month in SEO one on one sessions I decided to open up this program in an SEO webinar where many agents can learn the SEO secrets for a deep discounted price.

To The Top SEO Webinar- Become The Captain of Your Own SEO Ship is a 9 week Webinar that will give you the action steps and strategies to navigate your way to the top.

You Can Dominate Google For Your Business Too!

SEO Webinar Coming To A Monitor Near You!

SEO testimonial

Katerina Gasset

Stop wasting your time and money on things that don't work online.

Our phone rings with sellers who want to list their homes with us directly from our online marketing efforts that all start with the right way to use SEO strategies. If you do it right, your phone will ring also.

In just one year we have over 50% of our listings coming from the internet; our online marketing.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself!

Donna Bigda SEO testimonial

I highly recommend that anyone who's looking to boost their rankings in Google to follow Katerina's highly effective SEO strategies.

Thanks to Katerina, I was able to position myself within two weeks in 9 of 10 spots on page one of Google for a condominium complex I was farming and have also been able to dominate page 1 of Google for two other relevant keywords in my market area.

Katerina ROCKS! Her SEO techniques work!!

Greg's SEO results

Your SEO To The Top Webinar Includes:

Understanding SERPS and Search Engines.

The Do's and Don'ts Of Linking Strategies. You will learn what kind of links you need to get and those to stay away from. You will also learn how to get the links you need.

Discover who your audience is and writing for your audience.

Step By Step Action Steps to Conquer Page one of Google.

Properly Using Social Web 2.0 for SEO Strategies.

Black Hat VS White Hat SEO Strategies.

Titles, Tags and Descriptions and how to use these to your advantage.

How to use images and video optimized for best SEO.

How NOT to get scammed by SEO contracts!

Coach Katerina's Secret Strategies for Dominating Your Niche!

Early Bird Special
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Early Bird discounts apply until December 31, 2009.

Webinar starts January 13, 2010 - 1:30 P.M. EST

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Start your new year off with a bang! Get to the top for your niche!

Hurry and register today and save your spot for SEO To The Top Webinar.

By signing up today you will save your space. There is a limited amount of call lines that I am able to secure so you need to register now. Once the spaces are filled registration will be closed.

By registering today you will also save over $100. off the Regular price of the webinar.

You will learn the secrets that I use with my coaching clients to get them to the top of Google for less than $34 per session!

My clients pay me $250 per hour for this valuable information. Courses that are not even close to what this course has to offer sell for over $2495. online. I know, I have taken some of those courses and I will tell you they don't compare to what I will teach you.

P.S. You can get a head start on the webinar by reading a series of articles I wrote about SEO.
Click here to read my articles, SEO sessions 1 though 5.

Since helping agents and mortgage brokers to get their SEO up and running I have come to realize that the biggest issue is that most of us trusted some SEO expert and hired some company to do our SEO for us. The problem when I look into their work is that they have no clue about how to market or about your product, which is real estate and mortgages. Someone can be good at SEO but if they don't know how to market your product what good is all their SEO doing?

The question I like to ask is: How is that working for you?

You have to understand some of what is going on in the search engines in order not to get ripped off, in order to check up on the work that you have hired someone to do and to know if what you are doing is working or not.

This post is long overdue!
My coach, Katerina Gasset, is getting ready to host a blogging webinar with the topic of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and I thought now would be a great time to share with other Active Rain members, the success that Katerina brings to her students.

In under a month, I had risen from not even being on the first page of many of my neighborhood searches to being on the first page multiple times.

Katerina, being the amazing coach that she is, steered me in the right direction to obtain a higher profile on all of the search engines, despite my insistence that we were posting the wrong keywords!!

Keywords and longtail keywords are what it's all about
and once you've discovered that, 30 days of posting
TO your keywords is all it takes.

As a matter of fact, I did an experiment with one of my neighborhoods and found that it took only about 48 hours to climb to the top with her advice!

SEO Coaching

That is the proof that you can do this too. If you follow my webinar and instructions then you can get these results also. Don't wait, register for your SEO To The Top Webinar today and reserve your space.

Click here to read some SEO articles I have wrote.

Sign up through PayPal Here.

Contact Coach Katerina at CoachKaterina(atsign)Gmail.com with any specific questions.
1021 Cherry Lane Wellington Florida 33414
561-502-1577 Twitter @CoachKaterina

SEO Webinar | Webinar Real Bird

Wellington Florida Christmas and Chanukah Happenings

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:54:26 -0600

Wellington Florida Christmas and Hanukkah Happenings-

This Sunday at 1p.m. along Forest Hill Blvd- Wellington Florida is having its' yearly Christmas and Holiday parade. This is a really fun event. Set your chairs up along the route early. Also remember that Forest Hill Blvd will be closed to traffic during the parade hours. There are floats, cars decorated with holiday cheer, marching bands and much more.

Also on Sunday in Miami at Parrot Jungle the Miami Beach Jewish Community center is hosting the Hanukkah festival This is an annual Hanukkah event. There are many traditional foods and lots of activities for the children. You can contact the Jewish Community Center at 305-534-3206 to find out where to meet and how much it is get in.

If you like Christmas lights you will not want to miss out on The Hoffman Chocolate Factory's festival of lights right down the street from Wellington on Lake Worth road in Greenacres Florida. This is a free event being held every night from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.. The store and the lights are closed on Christmas eve and Christmas Day. This is an event we go to in the years we do not go to Disneyworld for the light displays. It is really beautiful. If you have not gone yet, you need to go. You will be happy you did. Don't forget your wallet because Hoffman's chocolates are the best- you will want to buy some and give as gifts.

Saturday and Sunday night only- Don't miss out on the Community Church of Hope's live presentation of Back To Bethlehem. This is an amazing event that is a great history teaching lesson and it is completely free. You don't have to worry about anyone even asking you for a donation. This birth of Jesus and the reinactment of Bethlehem in those days is this church's way to give back to the community.

You can visit the Back To Bethlehem website here where you can learn more about this wonderful and joyous event.

Would you like to have Christmas with the Chimps? You can at Lion Country Safari on Friday December 18 at 9:45 a.m. at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee Florida. For 20 years Lion Country has been doing this Christmas with the Chimps. The presents are loaded up on boats that are taken to Chimp Island and Santa arrives at 10:30 a.m. The price is $25.50 for adults and $18.50 for kids, this does not include tax. The chimps put on a great show. You can contact the event at 561-793-1084.

Last but not least- if you are feeling that palm trees decorated with lights still leaves something missing to your Christmas experience- hmmm, what would be missing? Ah, Snow. Well every night at scheduled intervals down at Cityplace in West Palm Beach Florida there is a fabulous display of snow. If you want to experience snow for the Christmas- this is really fun. We went down to Cityplace last year. Watch our video with Snow in Cityplace here.

So there are some great and fun things to do to get into and to enjoy the Christmas and Hanukkah season.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Very Happy New Year!

For more information about Florida Short Sales- click here.

Wellington Florida Christmas and Hanukkah Happenings-was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Short Sales and HAFA- Defining The Details For Real Estate Agents and Homeowners

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:53:05 -0600

HAFA- Defining The Details- Part II

Since I wrote the post, Let's Get To The Truth About HAFA- The New Short Sale Guidelines- there have been more questions raised. Like I said in that post we will take these HAFA guidelines apart so that you will be able to understand how this is going to help or not in your short sales.

The HAFA program is an acronym for Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives- Short Sale and Deed-In-Lieu of Foreclosure. It is known in the industry as the Supplemental Directive 09-09.

Let's continue with the analysis of HAFA:

The most important thing to understand about this directive- the HAFA program is that is provides, guidance to servicers for first mortgages that are NOT guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The word that you need to pay attention to in this sentence is that these are guidelines. This is not the law. These are not really even policies or rules. Guidance is a suggestion not a must do.

Servicers are the companies that you pay your mortgage to. Most people pay their mortgages to servicing companies and not the company that owns the note on your mortgage. This is confusing sometimes since the names of your servicers are names of banks. So you could be making your mortgage payments to Chase but Chase is just the servicer and your note may actually be owned by Wells Fargo. So you will not negotiate directly with Wells Fargo- Chase will do that part. It could be the other way around also. This is because your note is sold to other companies and sometimes your note could be sold to many different companies throughout the term of your note. I wrote an article that goes into detail about the servicers in this featured post about loan modifcations and short sales getting turned down by the servicers.

The HAFA program is a volunteer program basically although those servicers that have participated in the HAMP program must offer the HAFA program to homeowners under certain circumstances. The servicers have to opt into this program and they have to do this by December 31, 2009.

All servicers that opt into the HAFA program must sign a SPA agreement with Fannie Mae in behalf of the United States. This SPA agreement is the same type of agreement as a PSA agreement.

The servicers get to decide the extent to which they want to work with short sales and these guidelines don't have to take effect until April 5, 2010 although the servicers who are in HAMP can move your file into HAFA before that date.

Your loan must be HAMP eligible and meet other requirements in the guidelines in order to be eligible for the incentives to you and to your servicer.

That is an explanation of just the first page of the HAFA guidelines.

There are servicers who are already starting to use the HAFA program. The problem is that the servicers are already making mistakes in using this program.

Case In Point-

We have a short sale listing that is with Chase. We did not get to use our regular negotiator at Chase on this file. The negotiator we did have sat on his tush with this file and did not work on it. Then after 30 days of waiting without a BPO order, the negotiator it was assigned to sent it back to us along with a whole set of HAMP paperwork!

HAMP is the loan modification program that is a joke. Anyways- our seller does not qualify for the HAMP program on this property because it is an investment property. The homeowner does not live in the house and thus is not eligable for HAMP or HAFA. All the negotiator had to do was look at the file we sent in to see that this is an investment property and saved us all time. Now we are going to have to teach this negotiator how to use the HAFA program since they don't know how.

If the property you are doing a short sale on is not your principle residence you are not quailified for HAFA but you may still be able to get a short sale approved through normal short sale channels.

Don't get over excited about the 10 days that you read about everywhere. That ten days is NOT from the beginning of the process to the end. We will go into those details in the next post in this series on HAFA.

There are some positive things for the homeowner and those are:

you will get up to $1500 to help you with moving expenses from the servicer upon a successful closing,

the first note holder has to remove any deficiency and can not puruse a deficiency. This does not pertain to second mortgages or HELOCs.

We will continue through all 43 pages of these guidelines section by section- the sections that are important to homeowners and short sale agents.

For more information about Florida Short Sales- click here.

Short Sales and HAFA- Defining The Details for Real Estate Agents and Homeowners-was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Short Sales- Foreclosures- Wellington Florida

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:52:32 -0600

Short Sales- Foreclosures- Wellington Florida Real Estate Information

When you are looking for Wellington Florida real estate information you can not just go with the MLS data based on a search of just Wellington Florida. Even though Wellington Florida became its' own little village back in 1995 there are agents who might list properties by auto populating the fields in the MLS which can sometimes bring up old data and use West Palm Beach instead of Wellington. In fact, there are many places still today that I will call to order something over the phone or over the internet and when I give them our Wellington Florida zip code they will say, " Oh, I am getting West Palm Beach."

The next mistake a lot of agents around the area make is to do a zip code search of the MLS. That used to be fine. The main zip code for Wellington for years has been 33414. But now there are 3 zip codes for different parts of Wellington Florida. So when you do a market report of the real estate activity in Wellington Florida you have to expand your search to include all the zip codes that include Wellington and then delete the properties that are located in Lake Worth or West Palm Beach if they are not really in Wellington. This is kind of confusing to many people including agents.

Make sure that when you are doing your home search for your Wellington Florida home that you are working with an agent who understands this and will search Wellington in such a way to make sure you don't miss out on any areas of Wellington Florida that may not be pulled up in a simple search.

Below is a chart that we made regarding the current Wellington Florida Real Estate information and about how many short sales and foreclosures there are for sale in Wellington Florida. Below the chart is the breakdown of the information:

For more information about Florida Short Sales- click here.

Short Sales- Foreclosures- Wellington Florida -was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Madison Green- Royal Palm Beach- Florida- Best Kept Secret In Palm Beach County

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:52:02 -0600

Madison Green- Royal Palm Beach- Florida- Best Kept Secret of Palm Beach County

Madison Green is a well-maintained community in what is known as the Western Communities of Palm Beach County. Madison Green is located on Okeechobee Blvd. and on two sides of Crestwood. Most of Madison Green was built by Minto Homes. They are newer homes so if you are looking for a home that is not outdated but also a better value than brand new- Madison Green has a lot to offer.

Madison Green is just minutes from West Palm Beach International Airport, about 16 miles from the beach and just minutes away from Cityplace and all the happenings of downtown West Palm Beach. Shopping, schools, hospitals and restaurants are local and close to any part of Madison Green.

There are 1,100 homes in Madison Green. Currently there are 28 homes for sale. Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach is a golf course community. The golf course is a public golf course and there is no golf membership required in order to live in Madison Green even if you get a home with these magnificent golf views. The name of the golf course is, The Links at Madison Green. You also don't need gate access to get to the community club house or the golf course.

There are 12 villages built within Madison Green. 11 of them have unmanned gates so you do need to have a gate key to get into your neighborhoods. One of hte villages does not have any gates. The golf course is run by a private management company. If you live in Madison Green, you get discounts on your golf fees. The other great thing about Madison Green and the golf course is that the residents don't pay to maintain the golf course. So you get all the benefits of country golf living without the price tag that usually goes along with it.

There are 22 lakes within and around Madison Green. Many of the homes have pools for your year round enjoyment here in South Florida. The price ranges from the low end of $200,000 to the high end of $700,000 for homes in Madison Green. There are one story and two story homes all with popular floor plans depending on what your needs and desires are in a home. What works for you and yours will determine the floor plan you choose but they are all great plans.

All Minto homes are poured concrete on the second floors, no squeaky second floors- in Madison Green. There are homes with the typical 1,600 square foot 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms to homes with 6 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms and over 4,200 square feet under air.

The clubhouse includes a pool, a gym, basketball courts, tennis courts, playground, spa, meeting rooms and party rooms.

According to the current HOA association the dues currently are $307.50 per quarter which includes basic cable and all the common areas and amenities. Each village also has an HOA and they each have their own respective HOA fees, but they are smaller than the main association.

Like most of South Florida, Madision Green also has short sales and foreclosures in the community. The closing prices have been on the low side at $199,999 to over $475,000. For more information about Madison Green whether you are buying or selling, contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset at 561-753-0135.

Enjoy the show here with a ride around Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach Florida.

You can have some fun getting into the searching mode right here without ever even leaving this blog. Again, there are no strings attached so go for it and start searching on this interactive search tool for your convenience for homes in Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach or anywhere else in Palm Beach County Florida .

It Is Time To Plant Your South Florida Vegetable Garden!

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:24:08 -0600

It's time to plant your garden in Wellington Florida and the rest of South Florida.

Last year we tried growing Tomatoes in containers. The tomatoes did great until they were plagued with a disease called 'wilt' and they ended up withering away before we could get many tomatoes from them.

Well, when you fail, you try again! So here we go! We have had vegetable gardens in California, Hawaii, Washington, Texas and Utah. Florida is a whole other world for keeping a vegetable garden healthy. First, the seasons are different. In order to avoid most of your vegetables being eaten by bugs and animals it is best to plant towards the end of September. While other folks around the country are dealing with frost and turning over their gardens for the winter- the winter is the best time to have a vegetable garden in Wellington Florida.

This time we decided to try more than just tomatoes and now have a little vegetable garden growing.

The tomato plants started in November in our containers and look at how they are growing! They are very healthy, hearty and strong! There are a lot of small yellow blossoms popping open. There are 3 different varieties including a nice large red tomato, red cherry and yellow cherry tomatoes. This time we made sure we got disease resistant tomatoes. We planted some Marigolds inside each Tomato plant container to keep the bugs away.

Then we added an Eggplant to another container, planted an Avocado that was given to us by one of our sellers and some herbs and lettuce.

We planted basil, parsley, cilantro and tarragon. Then we added bibb lettuce and broccoli to nearby containers.

Here are some pineapple plants. We eat pineapple nearly every day. It is a very healthy fruit to eat and aids in digestion of other foods. Sometimes when we eat pineapple I try to save the tops to plant. When I have time we make it a fun homeschool project and plant the pineapples. All you do is cut off the top of the pineapple and stick it in the ground! Very easy! They start growing right away but it does take a year or two to get fruit.

Our Feng Shui consultant said we needed an auspicious tree on the right side of our home in our front yard. We found this ever bearing Lemon Tree. We wanted a tree from which we could eat the fruit. We add lemon to our water every day. Sometimes Whole Foods has organic lemons and sometimes they don't due to shipments and such. Having our own lemons will be a lot more convenient. We are thinking about a banana tree but they can be a messy fruit tree. Our other options are a Mango or a Papaya tree. We have a huge Coconut tree that bears coconuts all the year round. Anytime you want a piece of fresh coconut we just go cut down a coconut!

Of course no garden is complete without adding some color so even though impatiens are not edible, they are very pretty and great to plant at this time of the year in South Florida since this is when they are in full bloom here.

Hibiscus is a large flowering bush type plant that does well in the South Florida sun and heat and also does well in containers. They come in many colors.

It is a great stress reliever to tend a garden. The time outside is healthy and refreshing. We spend more time outdoors here in Wellington Florida in the winter. The summers are too hot to hang out or play outside unless you are in the pool. Walking in your garden brings a sense of peace. Being able to eat the food your produced creates a sense of security, self sufficiency and a sense of accomplishment.

Start a South Florida garden today! You can make a trip to Home Depot and buy the starter plants so you don't have to start your garden from seeds at first. There are also companies here in Wellington Florida and around South Florida that will come to your house and start your garden for you. They will put in your raised beds, your container garden or whatever garden you would like. If you don't know how to start a garden, this would be a great investment. Then next year you will know how to restart your garden. They are also a great solution if you want a garden but don't have time to get one started. They will do all of that for you. In this economy- their businesses are flourishing. One of my friends called one of the gardening companies and they said they were totally booked for the season. This is a great idea for a small business start up for those of you who may be unemployed and have green thumb. You could possibly turn your green thumb into that green stuff for your wallet.

Short Sale In Downtown West Palm Beach Florida- 600 Fern St West Palm Beach Florida 33401

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:06:54 -0600

This Short Sale In Very Popular Downtown West Palm Beach Florida- Right in the Heart of CityPlace where you can enjoy walks on the Intracoastal waterfront, go for a romantic ride in a horse and buggy, check out the movies at Muvico, eat at the some of the funnest restaurants, dance at the clubs or just relax for a window shopping stroll along the shopping area of Cityplace.

Short Sale in the Heart of Downtown West Palm Beach - 690 FERN St 33401

Overview
Maps
Photos
Features
Description
Market Stats

$399,777

Single Family Home
For Sale

Main Features

3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Interior: 1614 sqft

Location

690 Fern St.
West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Nestor and Katerina Gasset

International Properties and Investments, Inc
(561) 753-0135
coachkaterina@gmail.com
http://www.wellington-luxury-homes.com

Listed by: Nestor M. Gasset

Our recent listings

Short Sale in the Heart of Downtown West Palm Beach - 690 FERN St 33401
Short Sale! 12143 Sunset Point Cir Wellington Fl 33414
REDUCED! Short Sale In Boca Grand Condominium, Lowest Price In Building!
Short Sale Sunnydale Dr - Wellington FL 33414
Lake Ida Delray Beach Florida Living- New Listing For Sale!

Subscribe to our listing feed

See more West Palm Beach, FL real estate for sale

We Elfed The Kids! You Will Love This Video!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:13:22 -0600

Milet, one of our daughters- made this cute little video from ElfYourself.com which is sponsored by OfficeMax and powered by JibJab.

She added her daughter, who is our little granddaughter that just turned two, she added our son who just turned 7 and she added our little grandson who just turned one.

We got such a kick out of it we thought you would also. You can make all kinds of cute videos with this Elfyourself site and share them with your family and friends. There is a large variety of tunes.

So here are our cute little ones wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and A Happy New Year!

Wellington Florida Real Estate News- Florida Foreclosure Law and Florida Short Sales

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:25:18 -0600

Wellington Florida Real Estate News- Florida Foreclosure Law and Florida Short sales

Florida Foreclosure law is different than some other states. Not all states have the same laws regarding you losing your house to a foreclosure. Since we work with many sellers from different parts of the country who own property in Florida and need to do a short sale here in Florida before they lose their home to foreclosure proceeding we highly recommend that they discuss their situation with a Florida attorney. You need to discuss your particular situation with an attorney who knows the foreclosure law here in Florida. Many times we hear from our sellers that they are or have been talking to their attorneys in other states about Florida Foreclosure law. No disrespect is intended to your attorney who is not a Florida attorney; but your attorney may not understand fully about the Florida foreclosure laws.

Before you hire a Florida attorney to represent you in your Florida Foreclosure case make sure they are in good standing in Florida. Also, ask for references from that attorney from his clients who he or she has already helped or is helping currently. Please talk to those references about the attorney.

We have two attorneys that we work with that have been very good and reasonable. Please contact us for their information.

However we have also known attorneys who no longer are able to practice law in the state of Florida. In fact, one attorney who has done some very good foreclosure defense for some of our clients is now suspended with conditions from law here in Florida. We have clients who had him on retainer. This means he can not represent clients at this time.

A couple of years ago we had an attorney approach us because we carry a lot of short sale listings. He offered his services and we interviewed him at length. A few of our clients used him with great success but then after about 6 months of working with him, some of our clients began to tell us that he was not returning their phone calls and that he missed a court appearance for one. This was not a good sign and Nestor said he did not feel good. Nestor's instincts told him to get our clients away from this particular attorney. We did and right after that- his paralegal called us to tell us that he was in trouble with the law over his loan modification program.

So even though Florida foreclosure law attorneys abound in the state of Florida that does not mean they are all trustworthy. If you need to get an attorney to defend you in your foreclosure- please contact us and we can give you some options. You also may be qualified to do a short sale. We offer a phone consultation absolutely free with no strings attached. Your phone call is completely confidential. Call or email us to make an appointment at 351-753-0135.

Don't Lose Your House To Foreclosure! Short Sales Do Close!
Contact Nestor and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135.

Find out more about Florida Short Sales by clicking here. No registration required.

Short Sale! 12143 Sunset Point Circle Wellington Florida 33414- Wellington Fl Homes For Sale

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:03:57 -0600

Short sale! 12143 Sunset Point Circle Wellington Florida 33414 Wellington Fl Homes For Sale

This home is not going to last on the market long at all. We are anticipating multiple offers on this affordable starter home in Wellington Florida before the end of the week.

This home is ready to move into with hardwood floors, Kitchen redone and on a great part of Lake Wellington with direct water views. Don't wait, get your offer in today.

Short Sale! 12143 Sunset Point Cir Wellington Fl 33414

Overview
Maps
Photos
Features
Description

$199,777

N/A
For Sale

Main Features

3 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Interior: 1412 sqft

Location

12143 Sunset Point Cir
Wellington, FL 33414

Nestor and Katerina Gasset

International Properties and Investments, Inc
(561) 753-0135
coachkaterina@gmail.com
http://www.wellington-luxury-homes.com

Listed by: Nestor M. Gasset / Katerina Gasset

Our recent listings

Short Sale! 12143 Sunset Point Cir Wellington Fl 33414
REDUCED! Short Sale In Boca Grand Condominium, Lowest Price In Building!
Short Sale Sunnydale Dr - Wellington FL 33414
Lake Ida Delray Beach Florida Living- New Listing For Sale!
8364 White Egret Way- Lakes Of Sherbrooke- Lake Worth Florida 33467- Not a Short Sale!

Subscribe to our listing feed

See more Wellington, FL real estate for sale

We Found You On Active Rain! Do You Want To List Our REO's?

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:12:11 -0600

Do You Want To List Our REO's? We Found You On Active Rain!

Do you think you are wasting your time on Active Rain?
Do you blog for business on Active Rain?
Do you write your posts with the keywords that you know your potential customers are using in order to find what you are offering or selling?

We received an email yesterday from a bank that asked us if we would list their REO's in our area.
Guess how they found us! A Google search that brought up our Active Rain blog!

So the next time someone from one of those bash Active Rain blogs tells you that you are wasting your time on Active Rain- just tell them- talk to the hand!

Don't underestimate the power of Active Rain.

If you are not getting the results that you want from your online marketing make sure you are doing the following:

Know your buyer persona- your sellers and buyers.
Know what they want, how they search and what words they use when searching.
Do your keyword research and keep on doing it. Your keywords may not be the right ones.
Niche, niche, and niche some more.
Make sure you are writing at least 5 posts per week and that those posts have 400 to 800 words each.
Make sure that you are attracting links to your blog and website.
Take a class on SEO- I invite you to attend my SEO To The Top Webinar- next session starts January 13, 2010- kick off your new year in high gear!
Consider hiring a coach to get you on the right path in your online marketing program.
Make comments on Active Rain posts, especially the top bloggers and the featured posts.
Be consistent, stay on task, develop a plan, stick to your plan but also be flexible.
Watch the trends, check out google trends.
Don't try to do too much. Stick with one blog until it is working for you.
The proof is in the pudding- follow the lead of those who actually get business from blogging. Theory does not always work in the real world.

Let's Get To The Truth About HAFA- The New Short Sales Guidelines- Rumors VS Facts

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:32:40 -0600

Let's Get To The Truth About HAFA- The New Short Sale Guidelines

Active Rain and the internet has seen a surge in posts and articles written by agents and the media regarding the new HAFA program; the streamlining short sales program rolled out by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Many of these posts were featured. Many of them rang strong with hope for a faster closing time. I will be writing a set of articles along with this one that will go over all of the points in the 43 pages of guidelines and forms. There is just too much to put in one post.

Whenever I see a group of people complaining and wanting something to be changed I want to take a step back to see the big picture.
One sentence comes to mind often, " Be careful what you ask for."

NAR, Realtors® and homeowners around the country shouted, petitioned, discussed, wrote and spoke to their representatives about how long short sales take and how the banks don't seem willing to do them and that they don't know what they are doing.

My first question is:

Who says that a professional small business in Real Estate was going to be a walk in the park? And what makes a business where there is no ceiling, low entry level and can create success beyond one's wildest dreams also expected to be easy. Real estate is one of the highest stress careers but you can have a big pay day.

My second question is:

How many agents that wrote these posts of the blissful future of short sales actually read all 43 pages of the guidelines and forms?

I was tempted to write about HAFA but decided that I better understand HAFA and form an opinion based on facts- the facts that are written in these guidelines. So I spent 8 hours yesterday studying these guidelines and speaking with attorneys about them to get their opinions.

On the NAR website under the HAFA section it states:

"HAFA is a complex program, with 43 pages of guidelines and forms, designed to simplify and streamline use of short sales and deeds-in-lieu of forecloxure."

Do you see the oxymoron? How do you place the words, COMPLEX and SIMPLIFY in the same sentence?

The first rumor that I want to dispell is that all the short sales are now going to go smoothly. That is NOT the case.

These guidelines are complicated to say the least, there are a lot of ifs, ands and buts going on here.

The second rumor that I want to dispell is that all short sale lenders will have to answer your request for a short sale within 10 days.

This is NOT the case ALL the time and in ALL situations.

These guidelines are NOT for Fannie and Freddie owned loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be coming out with their own set of guidelines in the coming weeks.
The guidelines only pertain to servicers who are in the HAMP program now or those who enroll in the HAMP program.
Servicers must offer the HAMP program first before they offer the HAFA program.

The HAFA program is only for:

Principal Residences
First mortgages
The mortgage is delinquent or will be delinquent in the foreseeable future.
The unpaid balance is less than $729,750.
The monthly mortgage payment is more than 31 percent of the borrower's gross income.

The third rumor that I want to dispell is that this is going to happen right now. NOT TRUE.

This program begins on April 5, 2010 and servicers have until December 31st of this year to opt in to the program.
However, servicers may opt to begin the program at any time before April 5, 2010 as long as they can implement a record keeping system.

The fourth rumor that I want to dispell is that all the lenders are now under these guidelines.

The HAFA program is not LAW. The US Treasury rolled out these guidelines to go along with the HAMP program.

This part really gets me!

"The Treasury has selected Freddie Mac to serve as its' compliance agent for HAFA."

You mean the same Freddie Mac that was involved with the huge accounting and fraud scandals?

According to the Chicago Tribune Freddie Mac executives "devised a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass."

We believe in adding value to our sellers. We are good at negotiating short sales. Short sales are much more about good negotiating skills than anything else and programs like these tend to tie our hands in applying our negotiation skills.

We will take longer short sale times with approvals any day over shorter short sale response times that come back with a Rejection mark on them in order to fulfil their accoutability time frames.

We close 98% of ALL of our short sale listings and other agents do also. If we can do it, then you can too. If you are not closing above 80% of your short sale listings than you need to learn negotiating skills. Negotiating skills is what brings value to your clients and your business. Stay tuned for more details on the HAFA guidelines and forms- consider subscribing to our blog to be alerted of new articles.

Contact Nestor and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135-Don't Lose Your Home To Foreclosure!

Find out more about Florida Short Sales by clicking here.No registration required.

Bank Of America Short Sale Approved- It Only Took 13 Months!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:11:03 -0600

Bank Of America Short Sale Closed- It Just Took Them 13 Months!!!

Property Location: Vista Cay Condo in Orlando Florida

Original List Price: $ 194,777

Within 2 weeks had an offer. Buyer walks before short sale is approved by Bank of America.

Lowered the price, received a new offer.

List date to final closing date: 13 months

Amount owed to Countrywide/Bank of America: $320,000

Investor Propery- Short Term Rental in Vistay Cay

Property Owner: Investor- We have done 3 short sales for him so far.

Hardship: Loss of rental income, was denied loan modification, no programs for investors, loss of income on Florida investments

No Promissory Note

Bank of America put in writing that they will NOT pursue deficiency

Note owner: Fannie Mae

Commission: 6%

Sold Price: $ 175,000

Co-listed with Simon Conway of Picket Fence Real Estate

Don't Lose Your House To Foreclosure! Short Sales Do Close!
Contact Nestor and Katerina Gasset today at 561-753-0135.

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Palm Beach Steeplechase- Wellington Florida Happenings- See The Action Here!

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:31:48 -0600

Palm Beach Steeplechase -Wellington Florida Happenings!

What a great day it was for the Palm Beach Steeplechase in Wellington Florida held this past Saturday at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.

We had such a blast! Hold your horses! The horse photos are down below for your enjoyment.

As we entered into the Stadium area the first thing we noticed was the convenience of Valet parking, golf cart rides from your car to the entrance and a trolley service that picked spectators up from other parking areas and brought them right up to the front of the Stadium here in Wellington Florida.

Of course, you could have driven up to the front curb with this hot pink Hummer! I just had to take a photo of this beauty!

Maybe the owner of this hot pink guitar belonged to that pink Hummer.

The vendor's area was near the front of the Stadium. Our son Joshua who is the executive chef at the White Horsse Tavern at the Equestrian center was in charge of the food for the event for the public and private parties. He had over 1200 reservations for the private party tents.

The weather was perfect; not too hot and not too cold. Actually it was in the 70's all day which helped me to enjoy the entire day at Steeplechase.

There was so much to do and we took a lot of photos to share with all of you. I will have to write several posts about different aspects of Steeplechase in order to share the entire experience and to make sure you will be here next year for Steeplechase!

The races went off well although it was hard for me to take video and photos of the horses racing because of the crowds. There needs to some special blogger pass to get closer to the fences and gates of the Equestrian events:)

There was a total of six races including:

The Sport of Kings Maiden Hurdle
Sport of Queens Filly and Mare Hurdle Stakes
Allowance Hurdle
The Palm Beach Supreme Hurdle Sport of Kings Novice Hurdle Stake
Conditonal Claiming Hurdle
The Celebrity Race

Enjoy some of these gorgeous horses:

There was a lot of other entertainment going on everywhere around the stadium and on the fields. People came from all over to participate in the Tailgate competition.

The Jack Russel races kept you entertained in between races as did the fire dancers and the pony rides for the little kids.

There were over 8,000 people in attendance for the second annual Palm Beach Steeplechase.

Suncast was the major sponsor of the event this year. Suncast is a company located outside of Chicago and makes outdoor furnishings. The CEO Tom Tisbo and his wife Jeannie are part time residents of Wellington Florida and their daughter jumps professionally.

We hope to see you out at the Palm Beach Steeplechase next year and also for all the excting Winter Equestrian Festival Events this year beginning on January 16, 2010!

For all your Equestrian Real Estate needs and search for Your Wellington Florida Horse Properties For Sal e Here.

Have You Told The Ones You Love That You Love Them Today?

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:50:42 -0600

If you are a regular reader of our blog than you know a lot has been going on from glee to tragedy all seeming to be happening at the same time.

Sometimes, we need to take a step back and think about what we really appreciate in life.

Knowing that today could be your last, have you told your husband or wife or significant other and your children or relatives that you love them?
Have you smiled at a stranger passing by your path today?
Did you reach out your hand to help an elderly person open a door or get out of a car?
Did you reach into your change purse to give your change to the homeless man?

As I pondered these thoughts I realized how truly blessed I am to have Nestor in our lives. If you have been around for awhile- you know our series on Romancing Realtors®.

I know that I have shared what a loving husband, kind father and wonderful friend he is in posts gone by. I felt it in my heart this Christmas season to let him know publicly how much I appreciate all that he does for us and our family.

I also treasure each and every moment where he tells me he loves me and he does that every day.
Sometimes we come to expect certain things and the meaning may go unnoticed as it should never be-
one of the things that Nestor does to show me he loves me is to bring me flowers and now he is teaching our son to do the same for his mommy.

Once a week Nestor brings me fresh flowers.
And he always says," Gee, the flowers are so jealous because they are not as pretty as you."

Thank you honey, for thinking of me, always.

Foreclosure Process- Wellington Florida Foreclosure Information

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:59:15 -0600

Foreclosure Process- Wellington Florida Foreclosure Information

The process of Foreclosure is different in different states. Not all states handle or treat the foreclosure process the same. A lot of how the foreclosure process works is based on how you take title to your property in your state.

In Florida- we are a deed state NOT a trust deed state. This does make a difference in how the process will work.

In Florida- we are a judicial state in the Foreclosure process. That means that your lender has to go to court and ask the judge to sign over the transfer of title back to your lender.

The court process can take anywhere from a few weeks to over a year or two.

If you are not making your mortgage payments you will be sent a letter letting you know that your lender intends to file a lawsuit against you and to enforce their right to foreclose on your property.

You will first get a letter letting you know you are late on your payments and that you need to catch up on your payments.

Next you will get a demand letter stating that your lender plans to accelerate your loan which means that it will be all due and payable because you failed to keep your end of the deal- which is to make your mortgage payments.

Then you will get your acceleration letter.

Sometime after that- it can be as short as twenty days to as long as months after the last letter- your lender will file a lis pendens and have you served with a foreclosure law suit.

You must respond to this law suit within 21 calendar days which includes the day you are served. You have to be served by a deputy or process server unless you have an attorney. But if you have left your property and left without a forwarding address there is no way to physically serve you. In that case, the lender has the right to publish in a newspaper their intent to sue you to foreclose.

You can get an attorney who specializes in foreclosure defense to give you time to do a short sale or other work out options. During this time you get to live in your own home. No one is going to kick you out of your home until after the foreclosure is final at the courthouse.

We can usually get a foreclosure final date canceled or postponed once we have a good offer on your property and the appraisal has been done by your lender. But don't wait until the last minute to call us. The time to act is straight away.

You need to call to go over your options once you know you no longer can make your mortgage payments. We get so many calls from homeowners who want to sell their home as a short sale after they receive their summons and complaint- the law suit filed against them- and that puts us all in a time crunch. It can be done and we do this often however you will have a lot less stress upfront by responding right away and getting your options looked over early on in the foreclosure process.

Contact Nestor Gasset or Katerina Gasset at 561-753-0135 to see if you are a candidate for a possible short sale. To learn more about short sales- read Florida Short Sale information on our website.

Tragedy Strikes In Our Homeschool Support Group- Parents Educating Children- Prayer Request

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:08:10 -0600

Well, my blogging took a different turn tonight and I will not be getting the posts I am working on for you out tonight as planned. Sometimes, plans change.

Our PEC group- Parents Educating Children- our Florida Homeschool and local support groups are very close. We are like one big family. We work together on projects and meet once a year at our fantastic homeschool convention where thousands of Florida homeschool families go to learn and purchase new curriculum.

We meet together once a month and then more often when we go on field trips together or when we do co-op teaching.

I just received an email from our group leader asking for prayers for the Sitton Family. Jim and Muriel's 6 year old daughter fell upon a tragic death on Thanksgiving. Makayla was a very smart and gorgeous young girl. Jim is a very much loved photojournalist for WPTV. It is really hard for me to write this post but we need your help in prayers and also to find the alleged killer. I am shaking as I write this post and my heart is pounding. I am doing all I can to hold it together so that we can get this prayer request to you this evening.

The family knows that their little angel is with Heavenly Father now. Makayla was very spiritual and was very close to God. In fact, during their Thanksgiving dinner she asked if she could say a few words. She got up and said that when you get a gift that is not thanksgiving, that is thanks getting, but when you thank the giver for the gift, then you have thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving after they enjoyed their family gathering with many family members one of the cousins went outside for a few moments and then came back shooting everyone. There were 17 people in the home at the time. He shot and killed his 33 year old twin sisters, one of whom was pregnant. He killed his aunt who was 76 years old and then he shot Makayla 5 times while she was sleeping in her bed. This was the first time he had ever met his 6 year old cousin as he had not seen anyone in his family in 10 years. He shot and killed 4 people that Thanksgiving night and during one moment of silence as the family members were running for their lives, he said he had waited 20 years to do this. He did not shoot his father- instead this was more to punish his father for whatever!

Since I don't read the awful newspapers I found out about this through our email communications with our homeschool support group. What a tragic loss. I am going to have to take some time now to pray and get my emotions in order. I am crying as I write this story. It pains me to no end when senseless murder happens and when it is this close to home- well- it is even harder. I lost my mother to a killer and so I have a lot of empathy for those who go through this tragedy.

The manhunt for the killer has extended into Michigan. According to Jupiter Florida Police Sgt Pascarella - the alleged killer is Paul Merhige, age 35 and is driving a 4 door royal blue 2007 Toyota Camry with Florida License # W427JT. His address known address is 10201 SW 88th Ave. in Miami. But he also lived for a short time in Birmingham Michigan. Please contact the Michigan Police if you see this man. Do not approach him. He is assumed dangerous and is believed to be armed.

Courtesy of Channel 5- WPTV- Here is a photo of the alleged killer. Please contact police if you see him.

This is what Jim Sitton, her father had to say to the news media-

"I just want to let everyone know that she's in heaven; we know where she is, and that's the only reason I can stand here today. God has blessed us with a beautiful little girl and he just took her home.

"Makayla was a special girl. Six-years-old, played piano and sang. She was supposed to be in the Nutcracker ballet tomorrow at the Eissey theater... She was very excited about this. Tonight, when we put her down, I got to have a tender, special moment with her. She's just, our life, and I don't know how we're ever going to recover. God packed a lot of sweetness into that little body, and it's a tragic way to go, but we know where she is."

Here is a beautiful photo of Makayla courtesy of the Sitten family. Please add her family to your prayers tonight.

Please pray for the Sitton family and their loved ones as they go through this rough time of tribulation in their lives right now. Please pray that God's peace will surround them and that he sends his divine comfort to them.

Foreclosures In Wellington Florida 33414- Wellington Florida Homes For Sale

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:01:07 -0600

Foreclosures for sale in Wellington Florida 33414- Wellington Florida Homes For Sale.

If you are looking for a foreclosure in Wellington Florida you will find a variety of ranches, airpark homes, condos, townhouses, mcmansions and some single family homes for sale as foreclosures. Wellington Florida does not have as many foreclosures as other areas of Palm Beach County and when they do come on the market most of the time there will be multiple offers going to the bank that owns the property.

Your offer will need to be a strong offer with your finances in order, loan approval ready to go and prepared on an As Is Contract along with Bank Addendums that the banks require buyers to sign.

When you are searching online for a Wellington Florida foreclosure you may also consider Florida short sales as an option. You need to have an experienced agent who can guide you through the online listings because there are agents who do not list the properties correctly on the internet and on their mls systems. For instance, in the online search tool we have provided for you below where you can search all the listings that are posted by an agent somewhere online and as long as they have opted to allow their listings to be put on the internet- it appears that there are a lot of Wellington Florida foreclosures when in fact, many of these are listed as Wellington Florida foreclosures are actually short sales that have a lis pendens filed against them. This is not the same as a Wellington Florida foreclosure.

For more information about Florida Short Sales, please visit our website that contains many articles about how to do a short sale, how to buy a short sale and more. We never ask for your name, phone number or email address in order to give you information on our website so feel free to go there without any pressure.