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FSBO Funny Real Estate Sign

admin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:55:00 +0000

The law says you must give full disclosure of any problems with a house when you sell it. Here’s someone who followed that law to the letter.

Click here to Search the complete Phoenix Metro area MLS for FREE. Bette Zerba – GRI, and Trisha Brooks, GRI Re/Max, are ready to help you find that Phoenix metro area new home, sell your home, or look for commercial property. With today’s real estate market, bank owned, REO, Foreclosures, you need a Realtor who is knowledgeable, can negotiate and is ethical. You also need a sense of humor, and Bette Zerba, and Trisha Brooks not only will meet your real estate needs, but also will make you smile. It’s A Great Day In Phoenix Real Estate! Put a smile on your face, Call Bette 602-791-1766 and Trish 602-618-3053 today .

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Real Estate Humor Mish Mash

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Real Estate Mish Mash Humor

1. I have a temporary mortgage. What do you mean temporary? Until they foreclose.

2. Realtor: first you folks tell me what you can afford, then we’ll have a good laugh and go on from there.

3. The dream of the older generation was to pay off a mortgage. The dream of today’s young families is to get one.

4. If you think no one cares you’re alive, miss a couple of house payments.

5. My buyers went through debt consolidation. Now they have only one bill they won’t pay.

6. If you want to know exactly where the property line is, just watch the neighbor cut the grass.

7. This country is great. It’s the only place where you can borrow money for a down payment, get a 1st and 2nd mortgage and call yourself a homeowner.

8. Sign next to FSBO-We shoot every third agent and the 2nd one just left.

9. The trouble with owning a home is that no matter where you sit, you’re looking at something you should be doing.

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Michael Jackson Faces Forced Sale of Neverland

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:16:00 +0000

Michael Jackson Faces forced sale of Neverland.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson’s famed Neverland Valley Ranch in California will be foreclosed and sold on March 19 unless the pop star pays a balance of nearly $25 million, property records showed on Tuesday.

FoxNews.com celebrity columnist Roger Friedman reported on the Web site (http://www.foxnews.com) that Jackson has been formally apprised of the foreclosure and that legal documents have also been filed with the Santa Barbara County Recorder’s office.

“You are in default of a deed of trust …,” Jackson was told in the five-page filing, according to a copy of the document published by FoxNews.com. “Unless you take action to protect your property it may be sold at a public sale.”

According to the documents, if Jackson fails to pay the outstanding balance, estimated at $24.5 million, Neverland would be sold to the highest bidder at a public auction on the courthouse steps.

The county recorder’s Web site shows that a Notice of Trustees Sale was filed against Neverland Valley Ranch on Monday but no further details were available and a spokeswoman for the office declined to comment.

Jackson’s publicist, Raymone Bain, did not return calls seeking comment on the foreclosure notice.

The onetime “King of Pop” has owned the 2,800-acre (1,133-ha) ranch in the rolling foothills above the California coast since 1988, naming it after the whimsical island where children never grow up in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan stories.

Jackson, 49, famously outfitted the property with a private zoo and amusement park and festooned it with statues of Peter Pan characters.

But the reclusive, Grammy-winning singer has spent little time at Neverland since his June, 2005 acquittal on charges that he sexually molested a young boy there after plying him with alcohol.

In 2006 state authorities ordered the property shuttered and fined Jackson for failing to pay his employees or maintain proper insurance, and the zoo animals have since reportedly been removed.

Jackson, who proclaimed himself “King of Pop” in the 1980s and scored one of the top-selling pop albums of all time in “Thriller,” has since seen his fame as an entertainer eclipsed by the sometimes bizarre details of his personal life. (Editing by Eric Walsh)

Click here to Search the complete Phoenix Metro area MLS for FREE. Bette Zerba – GRI, Re/Max, is ready to help you find that Phoenix metro area new home, sell your home, or look for commercial property. With today’s real estate market, bank owned, REO, Foreclosures, you need a Realtor who is knowledgeable, can negotiate and is ethical. You also need a sense of humor, and Bette Zerba not only will meet your real estate needs, but also will make you smile. It’s A Great Day In Phoenix Real Estate! Put a smile on your face, Call Bette today 602-791-1766.

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200,000 Bees Found Inside Walls Of New Home

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:18:00 +0000

200,000 Bees Found Inside Walls Of New Home

A buzzing noise behind the walls of a family’s new home in Houston led to the discovery of more than 200,000 bees swarming inside the structure.

A mother of two and her boyfriend said they were painting their new home when they heard the noises. Then, a family member was stung by a bee inside the home.

“Somebody got stung by a bee and that is how we found out we had a bee problem,” boyfriend Paul Landi said.

Landi said his girlfriend was upset when they found the swarming bees inside the walls of the home.

“We don’t know if this is a problem that has been ongoing or something new, but the fact that she bought a house that has bees, for her and her girls’ sake, she is really, really upset,” Landi said.

The family called Gotcha Pest Control to inspect and extract the thousands of swarming bees.

A real estate broker said the family should have called a pest control expert to check for termites, bees and other insects when the house was purchased.

Beekeepers said the bees had likely been in the walls for at least a year.
Source: http://www.local6.com/news/9242978/detail.html

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The Dead Are Leaving Detroit

admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:13:00 +0000

The Dead Are Leaving Detroit

Flight of the dead: Suburban families move loved ones from Detroit cemeteries

CLINTON TOWNSHIP– At precisely 8:57 a.m., under an overcast sky, Francesco and Francesca Imbrunone were re-laid to rest. A man in a dark suit stood over their remains proclaiming that they “await the resurrection.”

If that promise holds true, then it would be, in a way, the Imbrunones’ second resurrection. As it happens, the couple was buried nearly 50 years ago in Detroit’s Mount Olivet Cemetery on the city’s east side. Then their grandchildren decided to disinter them, move them to the leafier suburbs and bury them again this particular morning.

“He’d complain, ‘Why did you spend the money?’ ” said Francesco’s granddaughter, Gerry Seip. “My grandmother? She’d just cry.”

By now the statistics are as well known in London as they are in Livonia. Detroit has lost half its population since its heyday of the 1950s, and every year the city hemorrhages an estimated 5,000 people more. First it was white flight to the suburbs; then with the city’s continued spiral into poverty and violence, blacks began to flee to those same suburbs. And while census figures show that whites are returning to some of the nation’s largest cities, Detroit is experiencing a flight of a different kind. As the Imbrunones’ second funeral demonstrates, Detroit is experiencing the flight of the dead.

The movement of the dead from the nation’s largest black city to its overwhelmingly white suburbs is a small, though socially symbolic phenomenon, revealing the grinding problems of race, crime and economics that plague both sides of Eight Mile.

From 2002 through 2007, the remains of about 1,000 people have been disinterred and moved out of the city, according to permits stored in metal filing cabinets in the city’s department of health. Looked at in another way, for about every 30 living human beings who leave Detroit, one dead human being follows. Moreover, anecdotal evidence compiled by a Detroit professor suggests the figure may be twice as high, meaning city records may be incomplete and that thousands upon thousands of deceased people have been relocated from the city over the past 20 years.

Moving to Macomb
The practice appears to be most common among families like the Imbrunones: former east side Catholic Detroiters who moved to Macomb County years ago, miles away from their dearly departed. The cemetery that appears to lose the most is Mount Olivet, located in the heart of the wild east side, with about 100 disinterments a year. The destination of choice seems to be Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton Township, which is now home to 11 members of the Imbrunone family.

Although there is little information or statistical evidence regarding the phenomenon across the country, it is quite likely that Detroit and its surrounding communities lead the way, as it does in population loss among the living.

The reasons are two-fold, surmises Patrick Lynch, a Clawson funeral home director and executive board member of the National Funeral Directors Association. “People have to drive to a place that may take them through neighborhoods they otherwise may never go,” he said. “Their safety might be compromised. Whether that is real or perceived, it’s real to them.

“Second, families have left the city and they want to bring their family members closer to them,” Lynch said. “People have grown older and they simply don’t or can’t drive to the city anymore. They want to be near to those they love.”

Such is the case with the Imbrunone clan, whose patriarch Francesco came from Sicily to America in the hull of a ship in 1902 and made his new life in Detroit. He was an anonymous man, a laborer who lived in boarding houses and swept factory floors. He would return to Italy occasionally until his wife Francesca demanded that he bring her and their children to the United States in 1937.

Three generations of the Imbrunones made a home on the east side of Detroit near Harper and Gratiot where the trolley cars turned around, a place the Italians called Caccalupo. It was nine people in a first floor flat.

Francesco was a simple man, who drank only wine and is said to have washed his face with his mouth closed so that no water would touch his palate. His wife Francesca never learned English, but taught her granddaughters Italian. They attended Mass together and the family sold vegetables at Eastern Market, saved its money, and bought property in 1960 in St. Clair Shores. Francesco died a few months before the family left the city. He died happy, by all accounts. He went to nap with a belly-full of pasta and never awoke.

“He knew,” said his granddaughter, Fran Palazzolo, 61. “He couldn’t go. He didn’t want to leave Detroit. But I guess he finally had to.”

For fear, convenience
The granddaughters, being the next of kin, elected to pay the approximately $5,000 to move their grandparents to Macomb County because they wanted to be closer to them. “In our family you don’t forget about your people,” Palazzolo said. “I hope that’s human. It’s at least Italian.”

Love. That was one part of the decision. There is another.

“To tell you the truth, yes, it’s fear,” Palazzolo said. “Have you been to Detroit? I pray the car doesn’t break down. I cringe when I drive down Gratiot. I’m worried for my life. There’s a lot of bad people in Detroit. But to tell you the truth, there’s a lot of bad people out here. But at least we’re closer this way.”

Earlier this summer Peter Cracchiolo, 89, of Grosse Pointe Shores, removed his mother and sister from Mount Olivet and relocated them to Resurrection. Cracchiolo, too, grew up on the city’s east side and his family was part of the great white exodus. His explanation for moving his dearly departed was convenience, though the Detroit cemetery is closer to his home.

“I’ve already got relatives up there,” he said of the suburban cemetery. “I’ve got friends up there. It’s one-stop visiting this way. Me, I don’t forget my people. No sir.”

The children of Jack W. Noble Sr. moved their father in May to the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly from Gethsemane Cemetery in Detroit, citing the poor condition and upkeep of the cemetery, according to a permit filed with the city.

Dr. Stephen Vogel, dean of architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy, believes the out-migration of the dead from Detroit is undercounted.

He and his researchers conducted a study three years ago, interviewing the director of each of Detroit’s 28 cemeteries. According to that study, about 400 to 500 disinterments occur each year.

“What it says to me is that there is a deeply ingrained fear on the part of suburbanites in terms of their attitude toward the city and its hold is very powerful and very deep,” Vogel said. “When they’re afraid to cross Eight Mile to visit a cemetery, it tells you what we’re up against and any solutions are not going to be easy.”

Which is not to say that cemeteries like Mount Olivet are emptying out. In fact, 1,200 burials a year are conducted at Mount Olivet since the cemetery made the decision 10 years ago to allow non-Catholics to enter, said Mark Gracely, the cemetery’s director. “We’ve even had people mail us cremated remains from Florida,” he said.

As for the Imbrunones, their family took the headstones with them and the cost of the old plot was applied toward the new plot.

In the meantime, the old east side home of the family has been razed; leaving no physical memory of the humble lives lived by Francesco and Francesca Imbrunone. Source: Detroit News.

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A Home Network Where Your TV Talks to Your Fridge

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:21:00 +0000

A Home Network Where Your TV Talks to Your Fridge

BERLIN — Across the consumer electronics industry, leading players are revamping their audio and video equipment for a future centered around the Internet, a world in which televisions, stereos and computers — even dishwashers and refrigerators — can communicate with each other over a wireless home network.

Expanded lines of networked entertainment equipment will take center stage this week at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin, the largest consumer electronics convention in Europe, with 1,200 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors.

Sony plans to introduce plug-in adapters to enable some of its Bravia television sets to connect to the Internet wirelessly. The Dutch consumer electronics maker Philips will demonstrate a line of stereo systems that can wirelessly tap into music stored on personal computers or laptops in other rooms, streaming music through the house.

Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp will present flat-panel TVs that hook up to the Internet, some with wires, some without. Hewlett-Packard’s MediaSmart L.C.D. TV will wirelessly stream high-definition video.

Some industry executives say the new focus on Internet content and wireless networks reflects a fundamental shift in home entertainment.

“The Internet is so massive,” said Tim Page, technology marketing manager at Sony Europe. “So are the opportunities for electronics makers, content providers and consumers to get connected.”

The convergence of telecommunications, consumer electronics and computing is bringing together a new set of competitors. Telecommunications operators, seeking to increase their revenue from data traffic, are actively promoting home Internet access that is both easier and more sophisticated.

One way is through so-called residential gateways, boxes that combine an Internet router with a modem and software than can wirelessly shuttle video and audio among devices in a home. France Télécom has sold six million of its Livebox gateways through 2007, according to Parks Associates, a research firm in Dallas.

Major online businesses also view the living room as a potentially lucrative new location for their services, with consumers turning to their TVs instead of PCs to reach the Internet. Google and Yahoo have said they will jointly produce software to make it easier to display Internet content on TV screens.

But the development of wireless home networks will require a shift in consumer thinking.

“Consumers really aren’t driving the trend toward networked devices, the device makers are,” said Steve Wilson, an analyst at ABI Research in New York. “The companies are pushing this to try to build a new business, to offer new services. It is really a matter of getting the infrastructure in place.”

While networked devices like Internet-ready TVs, set-top boxes, residential gateways and game consoles are increasingly common, the truly networked wireless home is still a few years off, industry experts say. By the end of this year, 370 million homes worldwide will have broadband Internet, Parks Associates estimates. But only 5 percent, about 17 million, will have residential media gateways.

The technology already exists to enable many home electronic devices, including kitchen appliances, to communicate over a wireless network, said Alon Ironi, the chief executive of Siano, an Israeli company that makes video receivers for devices like digital picture frames. The problem, Mr. Ironi said, is that most devices are unable to communicate with other manufacturers’ products because of different technological standards.

Although most major consumer electronics makers — Samsung, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, Toshiba — belong to the Digital Living Network Alliance, a consortium whose common protocols ensure that their devices communicate with one another, that has not stopped some from hedging their bets. In July, Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi and Motorola joined the Israeli company Amimon in a new standards group for wireless communication, called Wireless High Definition Interface, which is working to produce a new HD video standard.

“What this means for consumers is that some people may bring products home and discover that they can’t communicate with others on their networks,” said Kurt Scherf, a senior analyst at Parks Associates. “We are just starting to see the first networked products roll out and a shakeout in standards is inevitable.”

Still, manufacturers clearly think the appeal of a new information age centered on the living room couch will be strong enough to win over consumers who may be unimpressed by the early results. That is one reason that the former cordless telephone business of Siemens is starting to think about combining its phones with the Internet. Siemens sold 80.2 percent of the telephone unit, which makes Gigaset cordless phones, to Arques, a private equity firm in Munich, on Aug. 1. Although the transaction will not be completed until Oct. 1, the company is already considering plans to combine its phones with audio players and a wireless home network.

“Very soon, I don’t think there will be any consumer electronics device on the market that isn’t connected to the Internet,” said Jochen Eickholt, the chief executive of the Siemens unit. Source

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Dracula Castle FSBO Sale $78 Million

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:32:00 +0000

Dracula Castle FSBO Sale $78 Million

For sale by owner: Dracula castle
Locals might bite on the offer–if they can find $78 million

BUCHAREST, Romania – The family that owns a Transylvanian castle famous for its connections tothe 15th Century medieval ruler who inspired “Dracula” said Wednesday that itwants to sell the fortress to local authorities for $78 million.

The local council said it was interested in buying Bran Castle, perchedhigh on a rock and surrounded by snowcapped mountains in southernTransylvania. Dominic Habsburg, the owner, insisted his family had honorableintentions for wanting to sell the castle.

“We are trying to find the best way to preserve the castle in the interestof the family and the people of Bran,” Habsburg said in a statement.

The castle was returned to Habsburg, a New York architect, in May. It wasconfiscated by the communists from Habsburg’s mother, Princess Ileana, in1948, the year the royals were forced to leave the country.

After the restitution, concerns were raised that the family could sell thecastle to a hotel chain and that the site could end up being the centerpieceof a Dracula theme park that would blight the surrounding, pristinecountryside some 105 miles north of Bucharest.

More than 400,000 visitors a year visit the castle–mainly because of itsloose association with “Vlad the Impaler,” the prince whose cruelty inspirednovelist Bram Stoker’s vampire, Count Dracula.

He punished wrongdoers or the lazy by impaling them on stakes and onceimpaled all the elderly people in a community in an act of revenge after thekilling of his father and brother.

Vlad did not own the castle but is believed to have used it briefly duringhis incursions in Transylvania. He is also believed to have been imprisoned inthe castle for two months in 1462 when he was captured by a rival Hungarianking.
Lia Trandafir, an attorney for Habsburg, said local authorities areinterested in buying it. “They’d like to see it coming back to the communityand they consider it a central pillar of tourism in Brasov county,” she said.

Culture Minister Adrian Iorgulescu has criticized the planned purchase ofthe castle, saying it is worth only a fourth of Habsburg’s asking price.

“I have nothing against the castle being bought by the city council if theyare stupid enough to pay this money,” he said.

Faced with the enormous expense of the castle’s upkeep, Habsburg said hewanted to place the property in the hands of the local council with an eyetoward ensuring its historic character is preserved. Source: http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/jan/11/news/chi-0701110106jan11

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Bobcats Take Over California Foreclosure Home

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:44:00 +0000

Bobcats Take Over California Foreclosure Home

A family of feline squatters has moved into a foreclosed home in Lake Elsinore. Residents of the Tuscany Hills development first noticed the bobcats about a week ago.

With real estate values plummeting and foreclosed homes sitting empty, a family of bobcats apparently decided the time was right to pounce.

So last week, they slipped out of the parched foothills of Lake Elsinore and into a spacious, vacant home in well-groomed Tuscany Hills.

Residents of the development got their first look Aug. 27 when the feline squatters — at least two adults and three kittens — lolled atop a wall outside the Spanish-style house.

Someone called 911, reporting mountain lions. Four police cruisers showed up and officers ordered everyone inside. But soon they were out snapping photos along with the neighbors.

Bobcats are not known to attack humans, said Monique Middleton of Animal Friends of the Valley, which provides animal-control services.

“But are they pussycats? No. Can they do a lot of damage? Yes,” she said. “They usually look for a food and water source, and there is an old koi pond in the backyard and that’s where they are headed.”

She said she expected the animals to move on in a few weeks, when the kittens are old enough to travel.

Tuscany Hills has been hit hard by foreclosures, and the house on Vista Palermo has been empty at least six months, neighbors said.

Said Scott Brown, who with his wife, Karen, moved here from Long Beach to be close to nature: “They are great neighbors, and as long as they don’t want to baby-sit my kids, it’s not a problem.”
By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 5, 2008

Click here to Search the complete Phoenix Metro area MLS for FREE. Bette Zerba – GRI, Re/Max, is ready to help you find that Phoenix metro area new home, sell your home, or look for commercial property. With today’s real estate market, bank owned, REO, Foreclosures, you need a Realtor who is knowledgeable, can negotiate and is ethical. You also need a sense of humor, and Bette Zerba not only will meet your real estate needs, but also will make you smile. It’s A Great Day In Phoenix Real Estate! Put a smile on your face, Call Bette today 602-791-1766.

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Real Estate Agents Threaten Scientist Over Climate Change

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:33:00 +0000

Real Estate Agents Threaten Scientist Over Climate Change

A climate change scientist says real estate agents have threatened to make his life difficult if he continues to publish research about how vulnerable particular properties are to rising sea levels and coastal erosion.

Professor Andrew Pitman works at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.

He says real estate agents do not like potential buyers asking questions about climate change based on his research.

Professor Pitman has told the ABC’s Local Radio that several agents have asked him to stop talking about how vulnerable certain properties are.

“More explicitly [they said] ‘We’re nervous about our particular market niche in a particular suburb’,” he said.

“And, ‘We are going to start making your life difficult if you keep pointing to climate change affecting our particular location’.”

Professor Pitman says he will now change the way he refers to his research even though the science is robust.

“I feel fairly secure in general statements about sea level rise and general statements about properties that are very close to the water being more vulnerable,” he said.

“But I won’t now point to specific locations as being a particularly sensitive, although it’s not very difficult to find out what those [properties] would be.”

He says with an expected 40 per cent rise in sea levels by 2050, properties that are close to the water will be more vulnerable.

Professor Pitman says he suspects the owners of beachfront properties that are at risk, or shoreline properties that are already frequently flooded, already know that they are at risk from rising sea levels.

Tim McKibbon from the Real Estate Institute says it is the first he has heard of agents trying to silence Professor Pitman.

“I have no knowledge of it. He hasn’t named anybody,” he said.

As a result, Mr McKibbon says it is difficult to substantiate the claim, but he is not aware that Professor Pitman’s research is under threat. Source ABC

Click here to Search the complete Phoenix Metro area MLS for FREE. Bette Zerba – GRI, Re/Max, is ready to help you find that Phoenix metro area new home, sell your home, or look for commercial property. With today’s real estate market, bank owned, REO, Foreclosures, you need a Realtor who is knowledgeable, can negotiate and is ethical. You also need a sense of humor and Bette Zerba not only will meet you real estate needs, but also will make you smile. It’s A Great Day In Phoenix Real Estate! Put a smile on your face, Call Bette today 602-791-1766.

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