The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation or commonly known as DBPR is the governing agency over licenses in the state of Florida.

During the 2009 Legislative Session- the Florida State Legislature passed a new law- House Bill 425 as part of Chapter 455.227 (I0(t) that is for real estate licensees, appraisers, CAM and state contractors.

NEW REPORTING REQUIREMENT FOR CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS:

Beginning October 1, 2009, Chapter 455.227(1)(t)requires all licensees to report to the department within 30 days of being convicted or found guilty of, or having plead nolo contendere or guilty to a crime in any jurisdiction. This law also requires that any conviction prior to October 1, 2009.

A licensee who fails to report that information, may be subject to disciplinary action, including fines, suspension or license revocation. To report this information, complete the criminal self-reporting document and mail to the department as provided on the form.


There are two parts to this change that licensees need to be aware of:  1) In most cases the law previously required the reporting of felony convictions only, not misdemeanors.  The law now requires the reporting of misdemeanors.  2) The law change now requires retroactive reporting for any crime that was not previously reported to the state, whether it occurred prior to getting a license, or after the license was obtained.

That means that if you have ever been convicted of a DUI; you now have to report that even if it happened before you got your license and even if it is a misdemeanor. That means that if you ever got convicted of a misdemeanor of possession of pot- guess what- now they want to know about that.

I am hoping that does not mean they will start revoking licenses over stuff that happened years ago to agents who have been serving their clients diligently and ethically.

They are really looking for those that are convicted of Fraud, Identity Theft, Extortion and those types of crimes.

Here is the form for reporting anything!

Please call DBPR directly if you have any questions at 850-487-1395.

Wellington Florida Homes For Sale- Find Your Perfect Dream Home Today! 

Wellington Florida is a small home town 'feel' place to raise horses, families and friends. Living in Wellington Florida is like living in Old Florida where mature trees provide the backround and imagry of  horse and rider riding off into the sunset come to mind. Below sunsets are children playing and friends walking or biking along the community trails and pathways. To learn more about Wellington Florida- click here. 

Wellington Florida home for sale come in all sizes, styles from condos, townhouses, single family homes to Mcmansions and equestrian ranches on acreage. Whatever it is you desire in a home or vacation getaway or a second home for your equestrian needs- you will find it here in Wellington Florida. 

You will be able to find homes that are in gated communities to those without a homeowners' association. You don't need homeowners' associations here in Wellington Florida in order to have a tidy neighborhood because the Village of Wellington code enforcement is very strict and a phone call or two will usually rectify any situation that may be an eye sore in our community. 

Most of the schools in Wellington Florida are rated A schools. You can check with the Palm Beach County school district website to confirm the boundaries and locations of public elementary, middle and high schools.  We also have Wellington Christian school which is a private school for grades preschool to high school and is a very popular school around here. 

If you are a homeschooling family you will feel right at home here in Wellington Florida. We have a very large homeschooling population in Wellington Florida. Feel free to contact me about homeschooling. I am a veteran homeschool mom of over 28 years. 

Wellington Florida homes for sale- prices are low today and you will be able to get a lot for your money right now. We will help you find your perfect space and place under the sun here in sunny South Florida- Wellington Florida! You will be able to find small condos in the low $100,000's to luxury estate homes beginning in the $600,000 range up into the millions. 

The search screen below is a search of the homes for sale in 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's In A Web Browser Anyways? Back To The Basics. 


Whenever I write a post about techonology and mention using Firefox or Safari I get emails and comments with the following questions:

• What is Firefox?
• I can't use Firefox because I have to use IE for my MLS.
• Why do you say you use Firefox and Safari?
• I want to use Firefox but it is just a habit to use IE.

So let's go over some basics:

When you buy a windows PC you get IE- Internet Explorer.
When you buy an Apple computer it comes preloaded with Safari.
Whether you have an Apple or a PC; you can download FREE Firefox web browser, you can have Safari on a PC also.
There are many other browsers out there for you to choose from.

These are all Internet Browsers.
You use these programs to browse, search or use the Internet.

You can have more than one browser on your computer at the same time.
In fact you can have more than one browser open on your computer at the same time.
For instance: you can have IE opened up and be on your MLS and have Firefox open in another window for gmail or Google documents and you can have Safari open to be surfing on the internet.

You can also have tabs open in Firefox; lots of them without slowing down your computer.

So what do we use and why:

We joined the Mac world in the last few months so we use Safari a lot now.
But before we got our Apple computers we had PCs and this is what  you can do to get the best browser experience:

When you need to get on the MLS you will click on the IE Icon and Internet Explorer will open.
When you are finished using the MLS, close out of IE.
Unless you are a really heavy gamer you do not need IE for anything other than MLS.

Firefox is a much safer browser. The new version is lightning fast!
You will get used to the speed that Firefox browses the internet and will wonder what took you so long to get Firefox. You can also save all your tabs when you log out of Firefox. There are so many features, too many to list. Just go to their website and read all about it. 

The next best part about Firefox is all the great add-ons.
I wrote a post about managing your social online life with Yoono, a Firefox Add-on.
I have Colorful Tabs- and add on that lets me see all my tabs clearly and I have lots of tabs on!
Then there is the Read It Later add-on that I wrote a post about here.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of Add-ons that developers make to use with Firefox.

Hope this helps! 

FTC Disclosure: I am not an employee of any of the browsers, I am not an affiliate of any of the browsers or add-ons. I do not make any money explaining how to use these programs. I may get a thank you from the company. I may get more subscribers to my blog because of sharing great information I find on the internet. At this time these are all  free add ons however since I don't know any of their marketing plan I do not know nor can not know if they ever plan to monetize their tools. I am only sharing my experience with these tools.

 What's In A Web Browser Anyways? Back To The Basics by Coach Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Wellington Florida Real Estate News: Palm Beach Steeplechase is almost here!  Mark your calendars and get your tickets now. 

Wellington's Palm Beach Steeplechase is Saturday November 28th- the Saturday after Thanksgiving right across the street from Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. 

People come from all over the world to compete and to be entertained at Steeplechase. 

Of course one of the highlights is you will get to dine on our son's exquisite culinary delights that will sure to please your palette. Joshua (our second oldest son) is the executive chef at White Horse Tavern, formerly Tavern On The Green- at the Palm Beach Equestrian Club. He has already created the menus for the event. There will be several tents that will be provided for private parties for the day. If you are planning to eat at White Horse Tavern you will need to make your reservations now or else the restaurant will be totally booked. If you miss eating at the restaurant during Steeplechase make sure you get in this season to dine. Our son, no bias intended is one of the best chefs in the United States. 

We anticipate thousands of people to attend this event. The Steeplechase race is so exciting to watch. We have so much fun at Steeplechase because most all the Equestrian events here in Wellington Florida are Polo events and Hunter/Jumper and Dressage events. We don't get many races here so Steeplechase adds another dimension to the venues that make Wellington Florida a first class and world famous equestrian area. 

The race is like the kick off to our equestrian winter season. The top Steeplechase riders will be coming from Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other states and many countries to compete in 5 races for a total of $200,000 in prize money. 

Steeplechase was a race that began in Ireland in the 18th century where the race was from one church steeple to another. Eventually this race became popular all over the world. 

The riders and their horses will race clockwise for 2.25 miles including over hurdles. This year there will be an additional race, the Celebrity Race. This is definitely an event you will not want to miss. Horse racing is always crowd pleasing. 

The gates will be open for tailgaters at 9 a.m. and the first race will begin at 1 p.m. 

This year there will be four designated tailgate sections. You bring your car or tent, bring your own food and drink and get ready to have a blast! 

Whole Foods Market is sponsoring a tailgate contest for the most creative, most equestrian and most culinary. We also can not leave out, the most Palm Beach! This is a whole entertaining section just on its own. You should see how people go all out on decorating and preparing for this contest. 

Tailgate fees- each car is charged $295 and that includes four tickets. If you want to have a tent space the fee is $395 for a 10x10 and includes 8 tickets. You can also reserve the Home Stretch Rail Chalet for $3000 which includes 40 tickets. 

Other activities will include: 

• A tug of war between the firefighters and the sheriff's deputies.
• A classic car parade. 
• Harley- Davidson motorcycle parade.
• A local Mayors' race. A Female Hat Contest. 

There are also lots of entertaining activities for the kids: 

• Children's carnival. Pony
• Jugglers, Face Painters, 
• Balloon Artists, 
• A Petting Zoo,
• Pony Rides,
• Bounce Houses. 

And don't forget about the entertaining Jack Russell Terrier Race. 

General admission is $20 in advance or $25 the day of the event and children under the age of 12 are free. 

Parking is $10 per car for general parking, please see above for tailgate fees. VIP parking is available for $25. 

See you there! 

To  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 Florida Real Estate News: Palm Beach Steeplechase Is Almost Here! Copyright © 2009 by Katerina Gasset* all rights reserved*

How To Be In More Than One Place At The Same Time on Your Social Networks. Simplify Your Online Life! 

I have been experimenting with different programs to help make my  social networking more efficient.
The biggest thing I look for in programs whether they be add-ons to Firefox or actual software to install on the hard drive is how much time can I save by using the features.

Efficiency means saving time in my world. It also means being able to effectively network for business and causes.

There are some great tools for Twitter. Actually a lot of them. But most of them are Twitter specific.

I like Tweetdeck for Twitter and I do use Tweetdeck a lot.

Tweetdeck does save me time when I need to be totally focused on Twitter and Facebook.
You can now feed your Facebook and your Myspace right into Tweetdeck.

It is especially great if you want to connect to a certain person. Remember that on Twitter the 6 degrees of separation really can happen very quickly.
Whoever you want to meet- you can do this very efficiently using Tweetdeck- through following their tweets, following their followers and then adding value to their Tweet line.
It is also great when you want to keep on top of a certain trend or cause you are involved with. You can follow the # hash tags of your group, event, trend or cause very easily with Tweetdeck because you add as many columns as you need.

The downside to Tweetdeck is that it takes a lot of space on your hard drive and it freezes up older systems. You can always delete Tweetdeck if that happens to you.

I do a lot of online work consisting of blogging, researching, marketing, participating, networking, coaching and email communicating.
While doing many of those online activities I can multi-task. 

On my Igoogle page I have all my social networking as little widgets (which is set as my home page) on my Firefox browser.
But even that is not exactly what I really wanted because then I need to have more windows instead of tabs open in order to fully make use of those widgets.

Then I discovered Yoono! I have been using Yoono now for a couple of months and it is the one application that is helping me to maximize my time online and help me to not waste time.  AND IT IS FREE!

Yoono is a Firefox add-on.  Just go to your Mozilla Firefox home page and click on the top of your tool bar on tools. Under tools, click add-ons. Type in the search bar- Yoono.
Install Yoono.  You can choose different colors for your background. I like the pink contrast to my home page.

Yoono works as a column down your left sidebar of your Firefox browser. You can see all the action going on in real time without clicking in and out of websites or gmail or whatever you are working on. They also have a desktop version which is like Tweetdeck except does not seem to suck so much life out of the computer. 

You can set Yoono to run your Twiiter feeds, your Facebook, Myspace and Instant Messengers like Google Chat and AIM. If you are an Instant Messenger person, Yoono is fabulous! All your IMs come in on one sidebar! 

It is better than Twirl or Twitbin and it is faster than Twitterfox. 

The best thing about Yoono with Twitter is that I can see all the Tweets, all my Friends timeline and Tweets, I can see my DMs and my Replies to me all on one little sidebar! From there, I can post my Tweets, reply to Tweets and even Retweet right in the column there. I can also click on a profile and it will take me to their Twitter home page.  It is the easiest way to retweet which is one of the most powerful ways to enter a conversation on Twitter.

Another great feature is you can share websites, links, photos, etc all with one click to all your social networks. You can drag and drop images, video and links right into your IM to share with your friends and colleagues. You can share anything from the web with Yoono.

Check out this feature that Yoono also included on the sidebar. You can get all kinds of websited suggestions like when you are doing research for a post or an article.

IF you are looking for a way to get your social networking sites organized and have them all aggregated in one spot- try out Yoono. The price is right! FREE!  

 Simplify Your Online Life! by Coach Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

By TwitterButton

Thanks to Xerox sending out a Thank You card to our soldiers is simple, fast and free.   

At this time of the year we can take some time out to teach our children about giving thanks and living in gratitude.
The best way of course to teach gratitude is by being a good example of being in a thankful state of mind.

You can gather your children around your computer right now and go to this site:

Let's Say Thanks- In Support of our Troops.

Xerox prints out the postcards and then these cards go into the care packages that Givetothetroops® sends to our soldiers.
What a gift Xerox is giving to the troops. I really appreciate a company setting a great example like this.
The cards have all been designed by children and are patriotic. There are many patriotic symbols and messages to choose from. 

There is a link on the site where you can read the responses from soldiers around the globe.
For some of these soldiers, your card will be the only mail they get from home.

Here are some of the comments sent back by different servicemen and women:

Please be kind- take a moment out of your day to send a card for free to a soldier today. Please Reblog! 

Palm Beach Florida- Back In The Day- Guess Who Trivia! 

Palm Beach Florida was really popping in the era between World War I and the Great Depression!

Florida was really the rockin’ out place to be, to party and to live it up. 

So here are some highlights- trivia you may not know! 

• Al Capone dreamed of making his home in Boca Raton Florida. He started to settle there but was put into prison. He later settled in Miami where he lived out his years and died of syphilis. 

• John Dillinger and his gang fired machine guns into the air at a house in Palm Beach on New Year’s Eve of 1933-34. 

• Hoagy Carmichael was a clerk in a West Palm Beach law firm before he made his fortune in music. 

• In 1921 President Warren Harding pushed for the creation of the Intracoastal Waterway because he was stranded with some people in a channel near Fort Lauderdale. He never forgot his miserable day in Florida. 

• The famous Architect who inspired much of Boca Raton and Palm Beach’s homes and shopping centers- Addison Mizner- buried his pet spider monkey ‘Little Johnny Brown’ somewhere on Worth Avenue. For those of you who do not know, Worth Avenue is second only to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. 

• Al Capone’s son was arrested in North Miami in 1965 for shoplifting aspirin and flashlight batteries totalling $3.50. 

• Babe Ruth was staying in Palm Beach in 1930 holding out for the salary of $85,000. He eventually signed a 2 year contract for $80,000 per year which was $5000 more than President Hoover made. This made Babe Ruth the highest paid baseball player in history. 

• George Gershwin stayed in Palm Beach to write the opera, ‘Porgy and Bess’ in 1935. 

• In 1929 Boca Raton banned public begging, brawling and stubborn children! 

• The first radio station in Palm Beach county was WJNO which opened on July 31, 1936. 

Do you have any Palm Beach Trivia to share? 

Make your own mark by selling your house with Nestor and Katerina Gasset- while we all have fun with trivia, there is nothing trivial about getting your house sold! 

Photo Credit to Nationaltrust.org blog. 

To  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.

Palm Beach- Back In The Day- Guess Who Trivia! - Copyright © 2009 by Katerina Gasset* all rights reserved*

Savanna In Weston Florida- Homes For Sale 

We had this cute little listing in Savanna that was priced just right, it was a short sale and we got it approved to close as a short sale. We had a lot of offers on this particular property with multiple offers coming in at the same time. It is a very popular area to live because the homes in Savanna of Weston Florida are just a 30 mile drive to Miami and a 20 mile drive to downtown Fort Lauderdale. Savanna is just minutes from Sawgrass Mill mall and Wannado City®. If you need to do a short sale on your home in Savanna in Weston Florida give us a call.  We have a buyers' agent that specializes in the Weston homes for sale market.

Savanna is a gated community with a guarded gate. It is the largest gated community in Weston Florida. There are around 12,000 people residing in Savanna and there are over 60,000 people living in Weston Florida. 

There are 2,963 homes in Savanna in Weston Florida.  Those homes are divided up into different sections based on price ranges.  

Here is some fun trivia about Savanna that even if you live here you may not know: 

• Savanna has 8 parks, 
• 855 light poles, 
• 119 fire hydrants, 
• 87 cul de sacs, 
• 5,252 Swale Trees, 
• 9,640 irrigation heads. 

The Savanna clubhouse and amenities are extremely varied. The clubhouse here even offers swimming classes and Tae Kwon Do and dance classes. You can rent the clubhouse out for your Birthday parties, anniversary parties, Bar Mitzvah parties and whatever your entertaining venue might be. 

The pool area is very inviting! The resort style pools are immense so you can get your daily laps in right here. There is a large lap pool and a main pool with a waterslide.  There is a kiddie pool that is interactive and there is a wading pool for your teeny ones.  and a playground.

The amenities also include to lot playgrounds, a roller hockey rink, a multi-purpose field and Basketball courts. 

There is a 9 hole miniature golf put put course with lots of shade and decorative landscaping all along the way. They even have a little store right at the clubhouse with snacks, sandwiches and such. This is real resort style living. You never have to leave home for vacation! 

Many of the homes are on the lake with great views. 

The price ranges of the homes range from the low $200,000's to over 3 million$ USD depending on the size of the lot and the square footage of the home. 

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 Savanna in Weston 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.