Title Insurance Matters

Ron Lieber for The New York Times

When home buyers and people refinancing their mortgages first see the itemized estimate for all the closing costs and fees, the largest number is often for title insurance.

This moment is often profoundly irritating, mysterious and rushed — just like so much of the home-buying process. Lenders require buyers to have title insurance, but buyers are often not sure who picked the insurance company. And the buyers are so exhausted by the gantlet they’ve already run that they’re not interested in spending any time learning more about the policies and shopping around for a better one.

Besides, does anyone actually know people who have had to collect on title insurance? It ultimately feels like a tax — an extortionate one at that — and not a protective measure.

But all of the sudden, the importance of title insurance is becoming crystal-clear. In recent weeks, big lenders like GMAC Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have halted many or all of their foreclosure proceedings in the wake of allegations of sloppiness, shortcuts or worse. And a potential nightmare situation has emerged that has spooked not only homeowners but lawyers, title insurance companies and their investors.

Read full story here.

Five Things to Know About Energy Rebates

The government's Cash for Appliances program, which lets you score rebates for about $50 to $500 swapping energy guzzling appliances for more efficient models, has gotten lots of attention.

But don't count your greenbacks just yet. The incentives, which are administered through the states, are typically doled out on a first-come, first-served basis, and in many locales the money is already gone. Florida's program, for example, closed just 36 hours after it opened. But some states, such as Michigan, still had plenty of cash in their coffers at the end of May, and other initiatives didn't launch until Jun. To check the status of the program in your state, go to energysavers.gov/financial.

Read full story at CNNmoney.com

Free Halloween Events

Thu 10/28/2010
Lake Nona Trunk or Treat Spooktacular
Lake Nona YMCA
9055 Northlake Pkwy, Orlando
5pm to 7pm trick or treat activities
6:30pm costume contest


Sat 10/30/2010
Halloween Spooktaclar @ Alafaya Library
12000 E Colonial Dr, Orlando
3pm to 4:30pm
Come dressed in your favorite costume and join us for spooky fun with crafts, games and trick or treating!
Online registration


Sat 10/30/2010
Waterford Lakes Haunted Halloween
Waterford Lakes Town Center
413 N Alafaya Tr, Orlando
5pm to 7pm mall-wide trick or treat activities
6:15 pm costume contest in front of Regal Cinemas


Sat 10/30/2010
Avalon Park Spooktacular
downtown Avalon Park
5pm to 9pm
Evening of free family fun including, trick or treating with local businesses, costume parade, pumpkin carving and more!

Renaissance Senior Center

Put down that crossword puzzle and take the coffee to go because fun activities and social events are just down the road at the Renaissance Senior Center for everyone aged 55 and older all for just $10 annual membership.

Located just south of Curry Ford Rd on Econlockhatchee Tr, Renaissance Senior Center is a mecca of fitness, social and educational activities created to help enrich the active senior community of East Orlando.

Shred Fest: Waterford Lakes

Fairwinds Credit Union is partnering with Crown Shredding to bring you ‘Shred Fest’. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to protect yourself from identity theft by safely destroying your personal documents and papers in our shred truck courtesy of Crown Shredding. You can actually see the documents shred right before your eyes!

Waterford Lakes
306 N Alafaya Tr
Sat 10/23/2010
9am to 1pm
more info

Fannie & Freddie Bargains

From smartmoney.com

To pare down their growing inventory of properties, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are scrambling to unload nearly 150,000 foreclosed homes. That means 2004-esque deals – like requiring as little as 3% down, offering to pay a portion of the closing costs and arranging special financing and home warranties for repairs & renovations.

Here are the three best features of Fannie & Freddie foreclosures that make digging for these deals worthwhile.

Small Down Pymt For its foreclosed properties, Fannie will accept down payments as low as 3% on 30-year mortgages at the same interest rates banks are currently offering. And Fannie doesn’t require private mortgage insurance. Compared to a typical bank mortgage, which requires 10% down, plus PMI for buyers with less than 20%, that’s a huge savings – an estimated $51,000 up front and upwards of $2,500 per year PMI on a $300,000 mortgage.

Help With Renovations Fannie and Freddie have always fixed big flaws like leaky roofs & damaged electrical work and they often handle small projects like replacing broken or missing appliances, tearing up old carpet or fixing intentional damage left by former owners or vandals. To entice buyers who want to update or upgrade, many of Fannie's properties now come with an optional mortgage that includes extra financing up to $30,000 for repairs & improvements.

First Dibs Buyers who plan to live in their Freddie-purchased home will get to see properties for at least the first 15 days on market - before the listing opens to would-be landlords. Many bank-owned foreclosure properties are snatched up by cash-stocked investors who can wait out the downturn to sell later at a profit.

What’s Selling in East Orlando?

What’s selling in east Orlando? Single family homes were the strongest seller in the past 60 days. These top-selling communities had 100 single family homes change hands primarily to owner-occupants.

Avalon Park
Bella Vida
Cypress Springs
Spring Isle
Timber Springs
Waterford Lakes
Waterford Trails

Still laden with high distressed inventory (bank-owned & short sale), half of sales were bank-owned & 1/3 of sales were short sales – this is where buyers found the best values by far. No ‘normal’ seller can compete with distressed sale prices. However, these bargains will not be around for long.

I anticipate yet another significant swing in the real estate market come summer 2011 – these ‘bargain’ homes will quickly become few & far between once first time buyers & investors snatch up this bargain inventory now. With distressed inventory levels depleting, ‘normal’ sellers will once again get back in to the competition & finally be able to sell their home after a hard couple of years of being unable to compete with bargain-priced distressed sales.