My Plate Runneth Over! I've been feeling very grateful lately. Counting my blessings. Are you counting yours?   Maybe its because work is going well. Or maybe its because my kids make me so proud. Or maybe I've just lived long enough to know what really matters, what is important to me. Either way, I'm happy I can say that I'm grateful, even for the small things in life.   I'm grateful for my Active Rain friends and all my clients, and hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving, surrounded by loved ones and much joy.           And lets not forget our soldiers fighting for our country and our freedom! Lets all say a prayer for those that cannot be with their loved ones at this time of grateful celebration!        HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!!!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... 11/26/2008

Florida Short Sales- Important Update From Florida State Attorney General If you are a real estate agent in the state of Florida and you are listing short sales please read this update. Our Realtor Association of the Palm Beaches and the Florida Association of Realtors  have been actively engaged in making sure that the new law that went into effect on October 1, 2008 - FS-501.1377, is understood  by Realtors and that the duties are set forth clearly. Since there was some discrepancies regarding what is required when a Realtor takes a short sale listing the Florida Association of Realtors requested that the State of Florida Attorney General's Office, Bill McCollum address this issue and clear this up for all of us. Bill McCollum replied in a letter back to the Florida Association of Rea... 11/25/2008

More Reasons To Move To Florida- Asset Protection Most people move to South Florida for warm sunny days and star filled nights, for some of the best beaches on the planet and to get away from the snow. When people get tired of shoveling snow each day up north, South Florida tempts them, beckons them, and bids them to spread their snow bird wings. With the romance of the visions Florida the Sunshine state creates in the minds of those planning to move here there are some other very important and practical reasons to move to Florida. Florida is an asset protection state. This is the most popular reason for business minded people to want to move to Florida. When you choose Florida as your domicile you get some great benefits that very few other states offer their residents. Once you have l... 11/25/2008

International Investment opportunities for Americans are plentiful abroad in Europe, Asia and in Central and South America. One of the highlights of our NAR, National Association of Realtors® conference this year was the power networking sessions in the International Division of the Exhibition hall on Saturday and Sunday. Each hour, there were a set of different tables set up with agents or representatives of real estate from different sections of the world. For instance, one hour there would be the South American countries and then the next hour there were Western European countries. This went on for a few hours each day. Nestor and I made our rounds of meeting many different agents who are approved by NAR to do business with agents here in the states. There are still many countries wh... 11/22/2008

Wellington Florida homeschoolers have such a great array of activities that you can get your kids involved wtih . As a parent you could be going on field trips nearly every day. One of our son' favorite activities is to take Archery Lessons. Once or twice a year the DiscoveryQuest at the Gold Coast Christian Camp  teaches homeschoolers Archery lessons. They offer many other activities and classes. Click on the link above to see more of what DiscoveryQuest has to offer your homeschoolers. We are very blessed here in Florida to have a homeschool friendly state. Our state government encourages parents to make their own choices for their children's education. In fact, it has been the most friendly homeschool state I have lived in. We have been homeschooling for 28 years and are actively eng... 11/21/2008

We have a great expired listing program that makes our phone ring and a good percentage of our listings are from our expired listing program. One of the obstacles we have in our Luxury Home niche here in Wellington Florida is that many listings are all about who you know not what you do. Did you get our expired listing letter explaining how you would benefit from hiring us as your Realtor of choice? Did you want to call us but you promised another agent your listing? Think twice before you sign: We sent out our expired letter to a seller over 4 years ago. He called us and Nestor almost got the listing signed but then the seller says, "I owe my listing to so and so. She rides horses and is friends with my wife." So he lists the property for $3.5 million with one of my very best friends. ... 11/20/2008

I got a call yesterday from the listing agent on a transaction that I am in the midst of. Mind you, my clients have been attempting to purchase a home for months, and nothing seemed to be working out for them. We finally found a gem, put in an offer on a short sale, finally got the offer accepted, had the inspection-everything was going great-client loved me.Then the call came...the property needs to go through probate court (what?) and will your client pay for the attorney since the seller has no money (what?). In the state of Florida, when someone passes away, if they owned any property, even if it was willed to an heir, it still has to go through probate court.Some history-my client is already forking over cash to the seller for kitchen appliances (don't they usually come WITH the ho... 11/18/2008

Has anyone had their short sales from Countrywide denied lately? Has anyone had their file just closed suddenly? How about finding out your negotiator is no longer on your file when you were just talking to him the day before? If you read my post about Countrywide opening a new preshort sale department to have short sales get through their system faster than snail pace you will know that this step was supposed to help make things go smoothly at Countrywide. Well, get ready for this! The preshort sale department is in INDIA!!!!! So I guess they are going to replace incompetent employees who speak English for employees that not only you can't understand but are notorious for going down a scripted checklist and when you don't fit into their peg you get tossed aside! Countrywide wants to st... 11/18/2008

Wellington, FL Golf Courses Palm Beach Polo & Country Club  11199 Polo Club RoadPhone: 561 798-7000http://www.palmbeachpolo.com/ The 18 holes at the Dunes Course, completed in 1984, is unique to South Florida with its Scottish link style design. Built by Ron Garl and former U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate, it features extensive mounding, pot bunkers, grass traps and fairways full of ripples and swales.The 18 holes at the Cypress Course, designed by renowned architects Pete Dye and son P.B., opened in 1989. This unique course which wraps around the 92-acre Big Blue Cypress Preserve, offers a layout for both low and high- handicapped players. Wellington Golf & Country Club1900 Aero Club DrivePhone: 561-795-3510 Wellington Golf & Country Club is a 36-hole semi-private course designed by Ted ... 11/17/2008

Finally we don't have to drive for 30 to 40 minutes to get to a Whole Foods store anymore. We knew that the Wellington Florida Whole Foods was not scheduled to open until the spring of 2009 so what a surprise when Nestor left the full page Grand Opening ad from the Palm Beach Post on the counter to surprise me when I woke up in the morning last week. We were leaving to go to Orlando to the National Association of Realtors(R) conference when the Whole Foods grand opening started. The day before we drove to Orlando we were able to make it to Whole Foods to join in the celebration and get the items we needed for our trip. Now we don't have to drive more than 10 minutes to get to Whole Foods! I am in heaven! Nestor knows that he never has to ask me where do I want to go out to dinner on our... 11/15/2008

Short Sales- CountryWide has a new and more efficient way to handle short sales. CountryWide has been one of the longest to get a short sale done company around but they are moving forward and looking for ways to better streamline the process. Countrywide has a new preshort sale department and they will be accepting preshort sale packages. Of course, we have always sent preshort sale packages in to get the ball rolling but now it is official. You can turn in the preshort sale package and that will be processed and Countrywide will order the BPO ahead of the offer. This is a double edged sword for us who list and sell short sales. On the one hand we will know what the bank is wanting to get for the property so it will make the pricing adjustments easier from the get go, however, the othe... 11/12/2008

IS THAT REALLY A REALTOR'S JOB?? I was reading a post earlier about the physical state of homes that are being listed on MLS and it reminded me of a conversation I had with an investor. It went kind of like this: " I've been looking at properties on my own and I can't believe you realtors list these homes in the condition they are in! Don't you think you should get in there and clean them up a little before listing them?"  (Mind you, I am a Buyers' Agent, not a Listing Agent.)  I responded "Well, the properties don't belong to us-they belong to the owners or the banks, and we aren't legally allowed to go in and start changing things." As a Buyers' Agent, I am appalled at some of the listings I show-sometimes even a little frightened of what may be hiding in the closets or the overgrown ... 11/05/2008

Attorney General Bill McCollum's office is investigating over 1,700 complaints against debt relief companies. McCollum stated that preying on Florida residents in distress will not be tolerated. His office has filed 5 lawsuits so far and is reviewing over 30 more lawsuits that they might file. One of the companies, Outreach Housing LLC, a Broward County company does business in Palm Beach County. There are over 600 homeowners who filed complaints against this company. About 100 of these homeowners said that Outreach told them to make partial mortgage payments of 60% to the company who then would work with the lenders to reduce their payments, and never did according to the Attorney General's office. This scam is commonplace of debt relief fraud. They advertise on bus benches, the Intern... 10/29/2008

I received a call one day in late August from a couple that had been trying, unsuccessfully, to purchase a new home for their young family. They had been putting offers in on short sale listings for months, they told me, and after waiting the acceptable time limit for a response (up to 8 weeks), had either been shut out by another buyer, or never even received a response from the lender.  They were at their wit's end and ready to give up on purchasing their dream home.It just so happened that they called on one of Nestor & Katerina's short sale listings, a beautiful home in Port St. Lucie. Living in West Palm Beach, at first I was slightly reluctant about driving an hour and a half to show them just the one property they had called on, but felt terrible about their experiences so far, a... 10/28/2008

Last Friday night was our yearly Trunk or Treat that is hosted by our Church each Halloween season. This year was a lot of fun for Nestor, myself and our son. We had planned to leave the house at 3:00 p.m. to go to ToysRus to buy our son his Halloween Star Wars costume, candy and some decorations for the trunk. Most Fridays is date night for us. We usually shut down working about this time on Friday so we can relax and get ready for an evening out to dinner and a movie. But this day was unusually busy with over 6 offers coming through our fax machines. Of course this is good news and since all the offers were on short sales I just called each buyers agent to let them know I received their offers and would be working with them on Monday. So then we got a late start and hungry so we stopp... 10/28/2008

ROARRR!! OUR FLORIDA PANTHERS DID IT AGAIN!!!Being from New York originally, and a hockey fan, and a RANGER's hockey fan, I can tell you I got the most pleasure out of seeing our local Florida Panther's beat the pants off the NY Islanders at their home stadium in the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise Florida. GO PANTHERS! It was a shut-out game, thanks to our goalie Vokoun! The Islanders never had a chance.My son is a goalie for the rec team here in Wellington Florida and is on his middle-school team, as well. This was such a treat to be able to go see this team and to pick up some tips from his favorite goalie.And, yes, for those of you that were wondering, I am a hockey Mom, and I DO wear lipstick!!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vis... 10/24/2008

Don't list those short sales unless you know what you are doing! STOP! Do not pass Go until you know! We listed a home while we were helping homeowners with their foreclosure options at the HOPE Taskforce Workshop this past Saturday. This single mom who had been divorced since they had purchase their home can no longer pay her mortgage payments. She had her home listed with an agent and this is what the agent told her: Countrywide turned down your short sale because you do not qualify. Countrywide turned down a $115,000 offer on your house. You need to give me your 401K and IRA account statements. You can not longer do a short sale because Countrywide was just bought by Bank Of America and so they are not going to do any more short sales! SO the agent cancels the listing and leaves this... 10/24/2008

Wellington, FL Overview Wellington Virtual TourWellington Single Family HomesWellington Condos and TownhomesWellington Multi FamilyWellington Lots and LandWellington Golf Courses The village of Wellington is an equestrian community that was incorporated in 1995. Named after a Boston man, C. Oliver Wellington, who bought the first acres of land in 1954, this community, has grown to over 7500 single family homes and 3,907 multi-family homes in a very short time. As you ride around you see horses everywhere. They are in open fields, on private property, playing polo, in training and grazing. Wellington prides itself with outstanding equestrian programs, activities and events. This planned community of over 18,000 acres offers neighborhoods in all price ranges. From condos, townhouses, vill... 10/21/2008

Our son's birthday was at the end of August. For his birthday we took him to Orlando to Seaworld and other happenings around Orlando. You can read my post about Seaworld Orlando here and photos of Shamu!  You can also read more of our events his birthday getaway here. But he also wanted to have a pool party for his friends to come over and play too. The weekend of his birthday was Labor Day weekend so we knew that would not be a good time for a party. Then the whole month of September was shot because of the active hurricanes and rains we had. Nothing like having your birthday party cancelled because of a hurricane warning. I know that well, we have 3 kids born in the month of September! Finally we found a day to have the party in October. The sun is still warm but we cranked up the poo... 10/21/2008

This is a story worth reporting. When what begins as a way to help people buy homes turns into a nightmare. I will never forget Lenn Harley's post where she says that some people need to rent homes and are not homeowners. That really made me think about it and here is a story that certainly bring this home. He had a mortgage that was at 9% and a second mortgage at 12%! Those interest rates alone were sending RESPA violation signals to us as we were sitting there in our meeting.  He did not speak the best of English. He had a wife and 2 kids. This was a case of predatory lending like you would not believe. The very people like ACORN that pushed these kinds of loans with no regard whether they could pay them back of not and then the companies that went out to fulfill their quoto of these ... 10/20/2008