Archive for December, 2007

Very Last Day To Register To Vote

December 31st, 2007 Categories: Community News, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Florida City, Homestead, Kendall, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Southwest Dade, The Redland

If you’d like to vote in the upcoming Presidential Preference Primary election on January 29th and you are not registered to vote, today is the last day you can register.

You’ll have to do it in person.

Fill out the voter registration form and take it with proper ID to your local driver’s license office, a voter registration agency, an armed forces recruitment office, the Division of Elections, or the office of any Supervisor of Elections.

Do your part!

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Holiday Thoughts For A Smaller World

December 20th, 2007 Categories: Random Thoughts

I have a Google Alert set up for the word “Redland.” It lets me know when something about “Redland” hits the web.

This morning it alerted me to this story. It’s a tragic story about a 13 year old boy who lost his 5 year old brother, mother and grandma to a house fire in Maryland. (Redland Middle School was mentioned in the story…that set of my Google alert)

As a blogger, I stay in touch with bloggers throughout the country. Upon reading the story, I emailed my buddy Bob Carney to ask if this was anywhere near him. It turns out the tragic incident happened only miles from him.

Our world is getting smaller because of technology. I hear about things happening here and there and I immediately think of blogging friends I have in those places.

As my heart broke for this boy I thought I’d pass the story along. Maybe just one person will read it because of me and decide to donate to his cause. Details on how to donate are the bottom of the link to the story above. Here it is again anyway.

I have a 13 year old nephew. I have a 13 year old daughter. I know the insecurities that plague the passing of childhood and the transition to adulthood. Add to that this horrific incident and I cannot imagine what this poor boy is going through!

As you plan your holidays and get caught up in the hustle and bustle of them, won’t you stop to think about the LOVE that is behind it all? It is my sincere wish that you will show some of that love to this child this Christmas.

Don’t underestimate the power of a single good deed.

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Mortgage Fraud in Dade County Revisited

December 19th, 2007 Categories: For Buyers, Real Estate Chatter

I am not going to make this one long-winded. After yesterday’s news of 31 arrests by the feds in a mortgage scam ring that spanned from one of Florida’s coasts to the other, you would think people would start re-thinking their beliefs about what is right and what is not when it comes to mortgages.

Alas, this is not the case. I think the fact that this has happened so frequently in our area has otherwise law-abiding citizens thinking that certain things are perfectly fine to do, when in fact they are illegal.

As a real estate agent I am frequently asked “how much will the house appraise for?” Even the very first time I heard it I knew what was going to follow: a quick lesson on mortgage fraud from me.

Who is teaching our Miami-Dade residents out there to ask this question? Is there an infomercial guru pushing that a home which appraises for more than the sales price can be used to tap into the equity? Are there coffee buddies discussing this somewhere? Are Miami housewives talking about this at cousin Maritza’s baby shower?

I am asked this question more often than I would like. And it is always by someone who innocently enough thinks it is ok to get a larger mortgage than the sales price simply because the house appraises for more. It isn’t OK. In fact, it is illegal. Not only is it illegal, it is a federal offense, you know, the FBI?

I was asked this question again yesterday. I could tell from the conversation that followed that they had no idea. They simply wanted to be able to pay off some credit cards with the extra equity.

Let’s start spreading the word about this. Here’s today’s homework: a link to the FBI’s publication on mortgage fraud.

hmmmm…maybe I made this a little long-winded after all. Oh well, it’s not as if it’s not merited.

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Krome Offers Best Price On Gas

December 17th, 2007 Categories: Local Resources, South Florida Living

I haven’t written an article in over 2 weeks. Ouch! I have been swamped with work and apologize to my loyal readers. All 7 of you =)

And this article is not real estate related but I wanted to get it out there.

Living in the Redland, I travel along Krome Avenue a lot. I use it to drive down to Homestead as well as up to Kendall. I have been stopping to fill up my gas tank on either SW 232nd Street or SW 248th Street and Krome Avenue. At these intersections you can find 2 gas stations at each (for a total of 4) that offer gasoline at under $3.00

My office is in South Miami and I find myself in Kendall a lot too. I have seen gas at $3.25 in most places. Even with my small gas tank, I usually pump 15 gallons. At $.30 that’s $4.50 in savings at each fill-up. I fill up 2-3 times a week, so it adds up.

Sincere thanks to the Krome Avenue merchants for allowing me to continue driving my real estate customers around for a little less money =)

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Incorporate The Redland

December 1st, 2007 Categories: The Redland

When I moved to South Florida over 6 years ago I saw the signs all over the Redland.

KEEP IT RURAL. INCORPORATE REDLAND

The others said FARMERS AGAINST INCORPORATION

OK, I could see there were two different points of view going on but something wasn’t right.

Even before knowing the issues or how long the battle had been going on, something was amiss. One group wanted to keep it rural. I got that one. And the other (whom I thought was synonymous with “rural”) were against them. That one I didn’t couldn’t get. What the??

I could not wrap my head around the notion that a group was trying to keep things rural and farmers were going against them to not keep it rural. Aren’t farmers rural? Don’t they have tractors and other slow moving vehicles which work best in rural areas? Don’t they have open land where their crops are planted and isn’t that where the term rural originated? Why would farmers not want to keep things rural?

After a little investigation, naive me got it. The problem was that I was applying logic to this. There was no logic involved in this at all. Logic tells you that farmers embrace rural.

The problem stems from the fact that greed is what’s driving this. Yeah, the almighty dollar, peso, dubloon, whatever. The farmers have been farming the land for decades. And when they’re done farming they want to be able to sell it. OK. I see no problem with this. The land is theirs. They have every legal right to sell it.

But it isn’t enough to be able to sell it for one million when ten million is so much more. Not direct enough for you? Try this then:

1. Land in the Redland is listed for about $250,000 per acre. It’s a hard sell in this market, but that’s about the average list price.
2. The Redland sits outside the UDB and if you want to build out here, you either need a minimum of 5 acres or a smaller parcel that has been grandfathered in. Developers don’t like this. I can sum it up in one word: density. Why build one house when you can stick 40 in the same space?
3. If the Redland incorporates, developers know they’ll have a snowball’s chance in H-E-Double Hockeysticks of getting a development approved.
4. Developers can’t build, developers won’t buy.
5. The farmers’ exact parcel is worth less if a developer won’t buy it.

The fight to incorporate the Redland, and keep it rural, has been going on for about 10 years. Here’s an article that does an excellent job if providing the history and players.

I’ll be writing more about this. But for now, this should prove a satisfying appetizer.

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