Sometimes when a seller goes to transfer their home they get an unwelcome surprise: mystery liens. Realtor® Christine Shoemaker explains that some home sellers may have liens against the property they may not even be aware of:

Most purchase agreements allow the seller up to 30 days to clear up liens against the property that they might not know anything about. Just last week we had a closing where the homeowners had paid off their mortgage but there was a lien against the property for a line of credit they they never even used and didn’t know was there! Without some quick action by me and the owners of the property this situation could have easily delayed the closing adding additional hardships for both buyer and seller.

Did you know that it can take up to two weeks to ‘close out’ a equity line of credit even if there is a zero balance?! Hard to believe but true. In this age of hyper-vigilant banking practices most lenders want extra time to make sure you didn’t make some last minute purchases using your line of credit after you sold the house. So, if you’re thinking about selling and you think you don’t owe your mortgage lender any money it might be to your advantage to sit down with your local branch manager and make sure.

Read more: Could You Have Liens Against Your Property Without Knowing It? | REALTOR.com® Blogs

It used to be that when you wanted to find an apartment for rent, buy a used car, or pick up used, secondhand items like furniture or a washer and dryer, you looked in the classified section of the newspaper. But like with most other things these days, the Internet has taken over and made things even easier.

Nowadays, if you’re looking for any of these things, the best place to look is probably Craigslist, an online classified site categorized by city.

However, the technology that has made it easier to find what you need has also made it easier for scammers to take advantage of the unsuspecting. Craigslist is a perfect example of that. On any day of the week, you can find hundreds of local listings that include apartment and home rentals, cars for sale, concert and play tickets, jobs, and every conceivable secondhand item you can think of. But scammers are very creative and have put together elaborate rouses to trick even the savviest buyer.

The good news is that you don’t have to avoid Craigslist and all of its wonderful opportunities to avoid being “taken.” You just need to know what to look for.

Here’s a rundown of the most common Craigslist scams along with advice on how to avoid them.

Source: http://www.moneycrashers.com/types-common-craigslist-scams/

Smartphones and other mobile devices have transformed our use of the Internet, which now touches nearly every aspect of our lives. Nearly half of all Americans are expected to own a mobile device by the end of this year. While these tools provide users with convenient access to information and communications, they also carry risk.

Mobile users have recently captured the attention of cyber criminals who seek to take advantage of everyday citizens. In fact, experts predict that within three years, smartphones and mobile devices will surpass computers as the primary target for cyber crime. If a hacker can gain access to a mobile device, they can easily find e-mail addresses, stored passwords, banking information, social media accounts, and phone numbers – allowing them to steal your information, your money, and even your identity. That’s why practicing good cyber habits is so important.

You can protect yourself from cyber criminals by following the same safety rules you follow on your computer when using your smartphone. These include:

• Access the Internet over a secure network: Only browse the web through your service provider’s network (e.g., 3G) or a secure Wi-Fi network.
• Be suspicious of unknown links or requests sent through email or text message: Do not click on unknown links or answer strange questions sent to your mobile device, regardless of who the sender appears to be.
• Download only trusted applications: Download “apps” from trusted sources or marketplaces that have positive reviews and feedback.
• Be vigilant about online security: Keep anti-virus and malware software up to date, use varying and strong passwords, and never provide your personal or financial information without knowing who’s asking and why they need it.

STOP. THINK. CONNECT. Protect yourself and help keep the web a safer place for everyone. For more information on Stop.Think.Connect., please visit www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect.

Source: http://blog.dhs.gov/2011/06/be-smart-with-your-smartphones-security.html

The city of Evansville plans to grant $100,000 to Habitat for Humanity of Evansville Inc. to put together a plan to revitalize the historic Jacobsville neighborhood. As part of the plan, Habitat will build new homes and rehabilitate existing homes in the area.

Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel is pleased to announce the City of Evansville’s intention to grant $100,000 to Habitat for Humanity of Evansville, Inc., to lead the development of a comprehensive community development plan for the revitalization of the Jacobsville neighborhood, which is roughly bordered by Division St., Diamond Ave., Garvin St., and First Ave. The grant will come from County Option Income Taxes and is subject to approval by Evansville City Council, with the first reading this evening.

“The Jacobsville neighborhood has a deep history; proud, hard-working residents; and, judging by the number of people coming together on this initiative, a very bright future,” said Mayor Weinzapfel. “I know that Habitat has the leadership, manpower, vision, and passion necessary to bring the Jacobsville community together to make this initiative a resounding success.”

Both the City of Evansville and the Jacobsville Area Community Corporation (JACC) approached Habitat about serving as the lead convener for this project, in part due to the success of a similar planning effort in the Glenwood neighborhood. JACC, a 501(C)(3) formed in 2002 to improve the physical, economic and social environment of the Jacobsville area, has already done extensive work toward developing a comprehensive development plan.

As the lead convener, Habitat will work closely with JACC and other groups actively pursuing the goal of a revitalized, sustainable Jacobsville area to bring key stakeholders together to help ignite the process to push existing revitalization efforts forward. Habitat will facilitate the planning process; conduct a needs assessment, community engagement activities, market analysis, neighborhood surveys, and focus groups; and promote capital investment. In addition, Habitat will build new homes, rehab existing homes, and weatherize existing homeowner-occupied homes in Jacobsville.

After information regarding needs and wants of key stakeholders has been gathered, community discussions will then be held in an effort to frame the primary issues. These community discussions will be held quarterly and will take place over the next two years.

Playing lead convener fits well into the scope of Habitat’s work. In 2010, Habitat International invited Habitat for Humanity of Evansville to join its Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI). Habitat is one of about 40 Habitat affiliates working on procedures that will guide neighborhood development at the national level. The initiative involves expanding its housing solutions in an effort to serve more families.

Source: City of Evansville & InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=48192

Americans are more optimistic about their home buying prospects than residents of other countries, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying now is a good time to buy a home, according to the new Genworth International Mortgage Trends Report.

The local economic outlook, concerns about property affordability, and worries about future unemployment are among the issues listed by survey respondents as obstacles to their purchasing a home.

Yet these economic concerns have not translated into excessive mortgage stress among U.S. home buyers. According to the survey, 87% of Americans who bought their first home in the past 12 months expected to easily meet their mortgage repayment obligations in the coming year, a slight improvement over the 85% who comfortably met their mortgage payments in the 12 months prior to the survey period.

Due to affordability issues — high home prices, higher costs of living, or fear of rising interest rates — the average age of first-time home buyers has risen in all countries except India over the last 40 years. The average age at which a person in the U.S. was able to purchase a first home rose from 27.3 in the 1970s to 31.6 in the 2000s.

“The U.S. is the most optimistic among all the markets surveyed about buying a home,” said Kevin Schneider, Genworth U.S. Mortgage Insurance president. “Nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed believe now is a good time to buy a home … We hope that federal and state lawmakers recognize this pent-up demand and enact policies that foster prudent home ownership.”

Some key findings from other nations surveyed:

• Consumer confidence is a major factor in home buying. Developing countries are especially optimistic. India was the most positive country, with two thirds of Indian respondents feeling good about their national economy, followed by Mexico, where 42% of respondents were optimists.

• Indebtedness colors how households around the world view their financial situation and how they approach buying a home. Western countries tended to have higher levels of debt, but were also more comfortable taking on debt.

• In almost all of the countries surveyed, housing affordability is keeping first-home buyers out of the property market. The reasons for affordability challenges range from the rising costs of living, a fear of interest rate rises, lack of housing availability to high house prices.

Source: Genworth Financial

Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/news/articles/two-thirds-americans-think-now-good-time-buy-home/#ixzz1P5Wvfrzb

Some home owners are getting a surprise when a person shows up on their doorstep, with a lease agreement in hand, saying that he or she is renting out their home, which isn’t for rent but for sale.

Law enforcement and real estate professionals are finding a growing scam involving for-sale listings being promoted as rentals--without home owners’ consent.

Scammers are taking listing information of homes for-sale--including photos--and then reposting that information on rental sites and tweaking it to pass the home off as a rental. The scammers then use a fake lease agreement and collect rent from unsuspecting consumers.

And when the scammers don’t present keys for the property, they give the unsuspecting renter permission to call a locksmith to gain access to the home.

Les Sulgrove, president of the Des Moines Area Association of REALTORS®, recently issued a warning to association members about the scam. He suggested real estate professionals set up Google alerts for the home addresses they’re listing so they’ll learn if their clients’ information is being misused on another site.

“All it takes is cutting, pasting, and changing some key pieces of data,” Geoff Greenwood, spokesperson for the Iowa Attorney General’s office, told the Des Moines Register. “People find out the hard way what they paid for wasn’t for sale or for rent.”

Source: “Growing Online Scam Uses Legitimate for-sale Home Listings to Trick Renters,” Des Moines Register (June 5, 2011)
http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2011060901?OpenDocument

What makes a good password vs. a bad password? You undoubtedly have several passwords that you use to protect your important business information — so how do you make sure those passwords don’t become easy guesses for would-be hackers or make you a victim of cybercrime?

Here are some tips from security experts.

▪ Make your password 10 characters in length: Security researchers have found that a password with 10 characters would take a hacker, on average, 19.24 years at a hundred-billion-guesses-a-second rate to try every combination of those 10 characters to guess your password.

▪ Make sure your passwords are encrypted: If you use a password service to store all of your passwords so you can keep them straight, make sure the company does not store actual passwords but only the encrypted forms of it on the cloud. For example, the password bank LastPass only stores encrypted passwords on the Internet, and the information is only decrypted when you've retrieved it.

▪ Don’t use common words: Steve Gibson, a security expert and chief executive of the Gibson Research Corporation, suggests avoiding commonly used passwords as well as any words found in the dictionary. Instead, he stresses one of the strongest passwords you can make is a bunch of gibberish characters — again, at least 10 characters long.

Source: “Guard That Password (and Make Sure It’s Encrypted),” The New York Times (June 11, 2011)

http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2011061305?OpenDocument

If you defaulted on a debt, negotiated a reduced pay-off with your lender, or lost a home or other property due to foreclosure or repossession, you may have received a Form 1099-C Cancellation of Debt in the mail. Since the IRS expects you to include in your gross income any forgiven debt—and pay taxes on it (unless you qualify for an exclusion or exception)—this is a form that requires your careful attention.

If you have received one of these forms, you’re not alone. The IRS projects that it will process 2.8 million 1099-Cs for the 2010 tax year, up from nearly 2.7 million for the 2009 tax year. Thus, this week’s infographic is dedicated to the Form 1099-C, the new tax-time mascot of the Great Recession.

For more on the Form 1099-C, see Gerri Detweiler’s article, 1099-C In the Mail? How to Avoid Taxes on Canceled Debt.

The green building sector is offering some hope for the homebuilding industry, which has battled sluggish sales in recent years that has practically brought new-home construction to a halt.

But home builders that have opted for green construction are beating the odds and have even seen their market share rise slightly, according to panelists at a Standard & Poor’s housing summit this week in New York.

Home owners are being lured to green, seeing it as the greatest potential for appreciation of their home, panelists note. Green remodeling has also increased, partially due to federal tax credits available to home owners for energy-efficiency improvements.

In 2010, a third of all commercial real estate construction was green, as was 16 percent of residential construction. Jeff Mezger, president and CEO of KB Home, says one challenge is introducing more “green” products for the starter and move-up markets that won’t increase costs.

Also, some consumers are still not sold on green building, lacking information about energy savings and finding a qualified person to do the upgrade work, panelists noted.

Source: “Housing Panelists See Opportunity in Green Building,” HousingWire (June 9, 2011)

Santa Claus a Finalist for "Most Fun" Town

June 9, 2011 (Santa Claus, Ind.) - The town of Santa Claus is one of 30 contenders in the Best of the Road contest sponsored by USA Today and Rand McNally. Competing with six other finalists in the category for "Most Fun," Santa Claus, Indiana was selected from over 600 locales.

On June 23, five teams of travelers will journey from New York City to Los Angeles by July 15. Each team will visit six towns in an assigned category: most beautiful, most patriotic, friendliest, most fun, and best food, as well as points of interest en route.

The teams will choose the number one town in each of their respective categories and the towns will be highlighted on the Rand McNally website and in the 2013 Rand McNally Road Atlas, as well as on USA Today's Travel site. Winning towns will be announced on July 22.

"We are so excited that Santa Claus, Indiana, is one of the finalists in the Best of the Road contest," says Melissa Wilkinson, Executive Director of the Spencer County Visitors Bureau. "We're proud to be considered one of the "Most Fun" towns in America."

More details about the Rand McNally contest can be found at: http://www.BestOfTheRoad.com www.bestoftheroad.com/> and photos are available upon request.

Source: http://tristatehomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=278197