Tampa Bay Appraiser's Blog

The lure of playing the lottery and winning millions for doing nothing might sound hard to do.  The odds of winning are extremely low and even lower if no ticket is bought.  Successfully getting a loan modification has a lot in common with winning a lottery jackpot.  Getting your lender to agree to a drastic reduction in payments and principal reduction is similar to winning the lottery.  The old adage, “the lottery is for those who don’t know how to do math” is very true.  Less than 1% of all loan modifications become permanent.   

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out a new trend in trying to help underwater borrowers- Loan Vultures.  Scavenger funds are growing in numbers, however, they are receiving friction from lenders.  According to the Wall Street Journal, “Most delinquent mortgages aren’t available for sale because they are locked up in so-called private-label securities (the ones packaged by Wall Street during the boom) or in the hands of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.” 

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About Lauren’s Kids

Lauren’s Kids was founded by child abuse victim, survivor and educator Lauren Book-Lim. The organization educates adults and children about sexual abuse topics through an in school curriculum, a 24-hour Crisis Hotline and speaking engagements around the country. The ultimate goal is to raise funds for the creation of a Crisis Center for Children and their families coping with the aftermath of sexual abuse.

Lauren’s Story

Lauren Book-Lim, a victim and now a Survivor of child abuse, is nurturing hope for kids and their families by telling her story:

http://www.laurenskids.org

Here is a recent email from Lauren about the All-Star Game.  We are very proud of her passionate dedication to raising awareness of this kind.    continue reading…

If you are a service member of extended duty outside the United States for AT LEAST 90 days you can qualify for the home-buyer tax credit.  The dates for this service are January 1, 2009 – April 30, 2010.  These service members get a 1 YEAR EXTENSION.  This means one would need to be under contract by April 30, 2011 and closed by June 30, 2011 to be eligible. 

 Service members are defined as:  Armed Forces, U.S. Foreign Service and the Intelligence Community.

For complete details on this go to the link  IRS.gov  to get further information.  Hope this helps and if you know someone in the service please forward this to them.

WWW.TAMPABAYAPPRAISERS.COM

I’m not here to tell you SHOULD use Twitter. I’m here to share one thing. Twitter is nothing more than a microcosm for life. It’s more about a way to live rather than to approach social networking. Twitter in some form will persevere whether it’s gone in five years or less. Through focus and filtering it will evolve as we will.

It’s true. People aren’t in their right minds when they tweet. When they add value or educate I believe Twitter will continue to evolve and enlighten. But some of these individuals aren’t as identified as others with their minds. They use focus and filtering BEFORE they update their status. I dream about the day when those on Facebook will realize this. continue reading…