The Brainerd Lakes Real Estate Blog

Helping make real estate dreams come true Washington Report: New Consumer Financial Protection Agency by Kenneth R. Harney December 21, 2009 Congress took a major step last week toward eliminating what has been a painful thorn in the side of home sellers, Realtors, home builders, mortgage brokers and appraisers for months. As part of its financial and mortgage industry reform bill, the House voted to terminate the controversial Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) once a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency begins operations. The new agency would assume primary federal responsibility for equal opportunity in credit, real estate settlement procedures, financial disclosures to borrowers, plus unfair and deceptive marketing in mortgages and other financial products. The giant bill, nearly 1,300 pages long, now heads to the Senate, which is working on its own version. But tucked away in the depths of the House bill is a section that provides unusually deta...

Helping make real estate dreams come true Here is a very insightful and different perspective on the housing reform: By: Peter S. Goodman The New York Times The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good. Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes. As a result, desperate homeowners have sent payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences. Some borrowers have seen their credit tarnished wh...

Helping make Brainerd Lakes real estate dreams come true Saw this advice posted and thought it would be good advice to share, A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage: A.) Be aware: look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor , and in the back seat B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars. C.) Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle, and the passenger side... If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)

Helping make real estate dreams come true ~ the staging & selling team The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -Mark Twain The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903) There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress. -Mark Twain What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995 ) A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson Kathleen Lordbock REAL...