South Florida Real Estate and...

Florida Supreme Court Orders Foreclosure Mediation before the lender can get a final judgment. Florida is a judicial state for foreclosure. That means that the lender must take your house from you through going to court. They can not just come and take your house from you. They have to file a law suit against you and then you get your defenses heard in front of a judge. 

A task force was chosen to do a study on what the biggest problems are in the foreclosure area. 

Without dispute and very expected-the number one problem that was identified was a lack of communication between lenders and homeowners. 

Foreclosure filings in Florida reached 456,000 by the end of this year. There appears to be no let up in 2010. Some counties in Florida have been ordering mediation and it seems to be having a positive effect so Chief Justice Peggy Quince signed an order that all counties in Florida will have mediation as part of the judicial foreclosure process. 

From now on, in any new foreclosure filing case- if the home is the primary residence they will be offered mediation. The homeowner does not have to pay for the mediation. Most mediation sessions cost around $750. The lenders will have to pay for the mediation. If the lender goes through with the foreclosure they can add on the cost of the mediation to the judgment and court costs that they seek. 

The mediations have to be scheduled no sooner than 2 months and no later than 4 months after a foreclosure is filed. Homeowners will be referred to a HUD-Certified foreclosure counselor. Homeowners may reject the mediation. They are not forced to have a session. 

The order also states that data will have to kept as to how many of the cases are settled, how many foreclosures are abated and how many people kept their homes. The order also seeks to add more Pro Bono and discounted legal services to the homeowners who can not afford legal representation.  

I think this is a great time to be offered the option of doing a short sale for those who don't qualify for a loan modification, forbearance or other option. 

To read the entire Florida Supreme Court Order, click here.

For more information about how to do your Florida short sale, click here. 

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Florida Supreme Court Orders Foreclosure Mediation* 

The last three short sale listings we got this week were all from homeowners who had tried to get their loans modified and at the end of the day got rejected and turned down for their request for a loan modification.

For some of these people, it was a good 6 months before they knew the answer. 

What grabbed my attention the most is how these three homeowners should never have been put through the loan modification process because anyone with any knowledge of loan financing or the rules of HAMP would have known that none of these three homeowners were candidates for the current government sponsored loan modification program. 

Why in the world does it take up to 6 months before the homeowner finds out that they do not qualify for a loan modification when you could nip that one in the butt from the get go? 

There is a very fast way to save a lot of tax payer money and to save the uncertainty, anxiety and stress from those who wait such a long time to find out the answer to their loan modification request. 

Maybe if you are a bank, lender and/or servicer you will heed this one post with the advice that will help you get through the loan modification files sitting on your desks. 

Teach your front line customer support staff to ask two simple questions. You can even have the questions written down on a piece of paper next to them when they answer the phone or on their computer screen or even on a whiteboard in front of the operator crew. 

1. Is this home your primary residence? Are you an investor? 

      The HAMP program requires that the homeowner has to be living in their home and that it is their principle residence in order to qualify for the loan mod program. So the homeowner of one of our listings is actually an investor, ( such is the case with two of our sellers that just listed this week) which means they won't get approved for the loan mod. Dugh! Now, pray, tell me, why can't the person who takes the initial application for the loan mod request ask this one simple question? 

If they do not live in the house, then you say, sorry, you don't qualify and move on to the next request. But a short sale might be the right ticket for you. 

2. Do you have a job? Are you getting a steady income? 

       Again, this is a no brainer. You can teach a 3rd grader to ask this question and write down the answer. If the homeowner does not have any income he or she does not qualify for a loan modification. How can you pay your mortgage payment if there is no money coming in?

Why can't this be the first or second question asked before you waste all that time to process a loan mod request knowing it is not going to get approved at the end of the day? 

In the three listings we got this week- all of them were turned down for loan modifications, all of their requests took over 6 months to complete and now all three of them were told by their lenders to try a short sale. If they were screened on the phone up front, the lenders could have saved a lot of money for their investors and stockholders by selling now short instead of later. 

Fpr more information about how to do your Florida short sale, click here. 

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Loan Modifications: Did You Wait For Months and Then Had Your Loan Modification Rejected?* 

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae-  Blank Checks Are The Best Gifts

Secretly behind closed doors on the eve of December 24th, while you may have been out shopping for that last minute gift for your loved one, perhaps you were tucking in your children or grandchildren, maybe you were wrapping the last of the gifts to place under your tree- the United States Treasury Department gave you and I a very special gift. 

You are really going to enjoy this gift. Now, I know that because you are in real estate that you may be thinking that this is a gift that will serve your business however, I'll wager to say that I would rather be working hard in this business or start another business rather than unwrap this gift.

The United States Treasury gave Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae a blank check! Unlimited tax payers dollars to keep writing bad loans, keep buying up toxic mortgage securities and to keep sinking those companies deeper into the bottomless pit. So now the Federal Reserve can start cranking up those printing presses in double time.

There are NO limits placed on Freddie and Fannie! Oh and get this- their CEO's are getting $6 Million dollars a year for their salary and NOT one penny of it is coming from stock in the companies. Hmmm, I wonder is that because they know that by the end of 2010- their stock may just be at ZERO?

They gave this gift to Freddie and Fannie after the markets closed. After no one was watching or paying attention. They did this at the 11th hour- right before they would have had to ask Congress for the money. So to avoid asking Congress, they wrote the check themselves through a loop hole in which no permission was needed.

Many bank CEO's get paid a very small salary but get stock dividends. That makes sense, that is called performance based pay. But NO, not Fannie and Freddie. While the Pay Czar is making his visits to the banks telling them to lower executive salaries- they don't even mention this to the executives at Freddie and Fannie. It seems like they are the only ones who don't have to follow the rules.

That all while the losses are immense in those two companies. Fannie and Freddie went into conservator ship in September 2008.  They are in a separate bail out than TARP. We have pumped $400 Billion dollars into these two since then. The losses are going to be much greater.  The Fed bought $1.25 trillion in mortgage backed securities from Freddie and Fannie. Now they are asking for at least $400 Billion more to keep Freddie and Fannie a losing proposition. And we get to pay for it all. 

This is a total policy that is anti-growth. It will not be long before 9/10ths of all mortgages will be Freddie or Fannie. Perhaps that is the goal, to wipe out all the competition and only have the government to underwrite all the loans. It leads me to wonder; what does NAR think about this? Any wagers?

So much for transparency and conversation. So smile as you open your gift- right now we each need to pay Freddie and Fannie $3,800- that is every single tax payer in the U.S. How much more will it be? The government does not have resources. They get this money from us, the tax payers.

Welcome to the world of the unfittest. Where they reward those who are irresponsible with hand outs and punish those of us who are frugal and save money by depleting your pension funds and retirement accounts.

I just read a featured post asking why loan modifications are failing. Let's see if there is more to the picture- 

I also wrote a featured post about this some time ago. It is here: Is Your Short Sale or Loan Modification Being Turned Down?
That post was reblogged 44 times and had 4437 views. It was one of the most read posts I have ever written. 

The reasons are very clear if you research the facts. The servicers are under their PAS agreements which I explain in detail in the previous post that I noted above and they are always in fear of being sued by the note owners; the investors.

Just because the servicer is a bank does not mean that bank is the one that holds the note.
 
One of the biggest misconceptions in dealing with loan modifications and short sales is that when the homeowner calls ‘his bank’; over 90% of the time, he is calling the loan servicer.

Just because the name of the servicer may be the name of a bank, like Bank of America or JP Morgan Chase- does not mean they own the note on your mortgage. There are many times where you will find that your loan is being serviced by Bank of America but your note is owned by Wells Fargo.

So the first thing we have to get straight is that there are different things in the works here. Let’s not mix the apples with the oranges.

The different segments to discuss are:

• The servicers who service the loans
• The investors who own those notes
• The banks desire/plans to control our economy
  

Just because the big banks are horrid and lack in customer service like you’ve never seen before does not mean that they are not doing loan modifications for the reasons most think. There is a lot that the servicers can do upfront to help the loan mods to move along that is not rocket science. I will write a post about the fastest way to get a yes or let's process answer and we can hope they implement these. 

Now before we jump all over the banks- which we have every right to- because they are totally ruining our financial system not just in our country but in the world. We have every right to be mad at the banks.

Thomas Jefferson, over 200 years ago warned us about allowing banks to control us and our governments:

";I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people        ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and  corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up  homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to  the people, to whom it properly belongs.";
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)


But when the servicing agreements tell the servicers they MUST protect their investments and ROI- they become fearful of law suits.

There was a bill in the house that was addressing this issue to relieve this liability off of the servicers and to give them some leeway in to what they could get sued over and what not. But the investors who need to protect their investments lobbied the house not to pass this bill. I am not sure if it ever even got to the floor of the house.

Now there are always more kinks in a situation than we might realize or expect. So the answers are not so cut and dry either. Don't get the banks tightening up lending, the banks not investing, the banks not being prepared, etc, etc, with why servicers are reluctant to do loan modifications and short sales. These are different subjects, all with merit but not for this particular discussion.

You see, many of these investors who are not excited about loan modifications and short sales are not the banks but the investors of those banks. So many people and companies ended up owning knowingly and unknowingly toxic mortgage backed securities. One of our investors on one short sale file is Etrade.

Who are these investors? People like the teachers in your children’s school, the local firemen and women, the police chief in your town, the sheriff in your village. People like your grandparents and aunts and uncles who are living on pensions right now. People like you if you have an IRA account or a 401K retirement account. These are the shareholders and the actual owners of these toxic mortgage backed securities.

So when the servicer is fearful of falling out of the guidelines set forth in their PAS agreement- their fiduciary duty is not to you and I who pay our mortgage payments to them but rather the you and I who have our retirement plans, pensions and stock investments tied up in the notes that were bundled and we bought.

Feel Free To Reblog. 

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

Loan Modifications: Is There More To The Story Than Meets The Eye? was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Loan Modifications: Is There More To The Story Than Meets The Eye? * 

What Is Your Social Media Plan Of Action For 2010?

Do you have one? What are your plans for implementing your 2010 Social media plan?  

Social media contains so many different facets, applications, landscapes, techniques and tools.
One size certainly does not fit all in today's online marketing experience and planning.

The great thing about that is that you can custom design your own social media 2010 plan that fits you like a glove.

What is the cost? Some people will say- it is FREE.

But it is NOT free.

It takes your time! Time is the one thing that once it is spent- you can not get it back, ever. You can not invent more time, you can not create more time. I can always go and make more money- but I can not go and make more time.

• But you can create better use of your time.
  
• You can manage your time.
  
• You can prioritize your time.

One thing I have found through coaching agents and small business owners is that they tend to get caught up in one aspect of let's say, Facebook- that starts to lead from one activity to another on Facebook and before you know it, you look up at the clock and you discover you just spent 3 hours on Facebook and much of it was playing with your friends.

I have found great blogs to read and then I get so involved and if I don't manage my time- I will find out it is is 5 a.m. and I am still reading and commenting on blogs when I started at 10 p.m.! This can easily happen in areas where I have a lot of passion, such as politics or online marketing and coaching.

So when you make a plan, you have to learn to stick to your plan. This takes self discipline; for some- more than others.

You can click here to get my Social Media 2010 checklist I created for you. You can print it and use it- just don't sell it, claim it is yours or do any harm with it.

There are several things that you can do to help manage your social media time and actions.

• Set a Timer. In Firefox you can add as an add-on Simple Timer.  If you have a Mac you can add the Egg Timer Free widget to your Dashboard. Then when you have divided up your daily, weekly, monthly- action steps- you can set your timer for that amount of time. So for instance, if your plan is to spend 30 minutes a day on Facebook, you set your timer in those increments each day. You stop when your timer goes off no matter what. Since Facebook needs a bit more interaction you can set the timer in 10 minutes increments at 3 different parts of the day to equal the 30 minutes a day to network on Facebook.

• Hire a VA for the mundane non relational task on social networking. Our VA accepts my friend requests, cleans out the junk I don't want to deal with on Facebook, organizes my Fan pages, seeks out those I should be friends with that I want to network with and makes sure that my blogs and announcements are put up at the time that I want them to be announced. On Active Rain, my VA keeps our home page clean and alerts me to important emails from rainers I need to attend to. He deletes the "you commented on" etc. Whatever it is that does not need my personality for. On Twitter- he makes sure to block all the porn followers, sets up my tweets that make announcements but I always, 6 days a week work on Twitter myself paying it forward.

• Hire your kids to help you. This is a great way to get your preteens or teenagers involved in your business. Empower them with the errands on social networking like those listed above for the VA duties. This will keep them close to you also! What can be better than that!

Last but not least- be flexible Social Media networking is very fluid and constantly evolving. You may find better results in one area while your colleagues may find their success on another platform.

Most of all- be yourself and do what fits you best!

Learn more at my SEO TO THE TOP WEBINAR. 
           

I would be remiss if I did not end this year with one big Thank you to all of you-

Active Rain staff; Bob Stewart, Brad, Jonathan, Jeremy and all the support staff at Active Rain- you have created the best real estate online community ever and you should be darn proud of your accomplishment! You guys all rock! You have changed lives and businesses. You have touched lives in many ways. You have been instrumental in my quest for being all that I can be here in the Rain.

Thank you to each and every one of our subscribers- you who subscribe to our blog- you will never know how much you mean to me. You drive me to be a better blogger- you inspire me to reach for the high road and you encourage me with each and every comment to keep on blogging. Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you! Keep those comments coming!

This will be the first year on Active Rain that we did not send out our Thank you for subscribing to our blog snail mail letter. The first year we had about 500 subscribers and we were able to get all the letters out, hand addressed and stamped in time for Christmas. The second year, we had over 1000 subscribers and it was hard to address that many letters even with our daughters' help. But the hardest thing was not in getting the letters out to the mail box, the hardest thing was #1, not having  every ones'  address for mailing- many agents have no address, the wrong address, or the wrong information to send snail mail and #2, we got a lot of mail back which was wasted stamps, ink, paper and energy. Agents change offices and don't change that important information on their blogs. This year we have over 1500 subscribers and this task has just become too unfeasible. So this year we are thanking each one of your here, right now, publicly and with much appreciation!

 Thank you for subscribing to our blog and helping us to be in the top 3 most subscribed to blog on Active Rain, ( non active rain staff).

Ah, my friends in the Rain! If I lost it all tomorrow there are people here in the Rain that would come to my aide with just one phone call from me and some of you have! There are friends that I have made here on Active Rain that welcome me into their homes. I know when I go to Washington DC I have a place to lay my head at Patricia's home. I know that Sally will hug me when I visit her in Hawaii. And I don't know why I would ever want to go to Michigan ( LOL) but if for no other reason, to spend time with one of my best friends, Missy than it would be worth the trip to a place I have no desire to go to. ( Hey, just being transparent, LOL.) Loreena would welcome me with open arms in Texas and Fred in Victoria Canada. Todd Clark in Oregon and Teri Ellis in Arizona. Bryant is in our back yard practically and he and TLW are folks I can count on for anything I would ever need. Lenn is just a phone call away for me and she is always available to talk to me. Lenn- thank you!  Simon, Nicholas and Jon would most likely vote for me if I ran for public office. I am so grateful for all my friends, real friends that I have met and developed friendships with here on Active Rain. There are more folks here for me to mention however it would take a full day just to write that post! 

A big thank you and a shout out goes to all our clients who had previously found us online through our Active Rain blog. We appreciate your business! A HUGE Thank you to all of you - Active Rainers - who referred your friends, family members and contacts to us- you entrusted your clients to us and we are deeply appreciative of that.  And most of all- thank you with loads of HUGS to all of you who have trusted me enough to hire me as your coach, as your consultant and as your mentor. It is only because of you here on Active Rain that I have been able to make a success out of my SEO TO THE TOP webinar. You all who have taken this class and freely written great testimonials are so appreciated. I would not be where I am without you. Thank you for trusting me! 

Here's to a prosperous, joyous, grateful, wonderful, profitable, healthy New Year- 2010!

History of the Christmas Tree- Roots and All!

I was driving down the road the other day with my little guy, our 7 year old miracle child. We noticed some people standing on the side of the road with signs around them that were saying that celebrating Christmas was evil. That Christmas trees were of the devil and idol worshipping.

The greatest part of homeschooling is you can turn these situations into learning times. As my son was asking me questions I said, " I don't know all the answers so let's get home and we can do a research project on where Christmas trees come from and why do we celebrate Christmas besides the obvious." We then turned this into a unit study on the 'Symbols of Christmas."

We are not quite finished with the lapbook on this unit study- when we are- you will sure to see the finished project!

We can be very proud to make a claim as part of our ancestral heritage about the Christmas Tree. Although it is widely believed that Martin Luther was the first one to use an Evergreen Tree as a Christmas Tree, actually the first Christmas tree was in Riga Latvia- my mother's birth place- around the year 1510.  There is even an engraved monument in the street marking the place on which the first Christmas tree stood. Although Latvians were pageans they easily converted to the Lutheran Christian religion. As with many cultures many of their new Christian ceremonies were mingles with their originial pagean beliefs. The Winter Solstace or Yule was the event at the same time as Christmas.

Photos courtesy of FirstChristmastree.com.

I posted a really cute video below that shares a little bit of Riga Latvia with you. It is put on by Latvia's tourism department. The big claim to fame in this video is that Riga is home to the very first Christmas Tree and from there the Christmas tree spread all over the world.

You can read more about Latvia through my Latvian real estate posts regarding our court battle to save our Latvian Property that we own from scumbags and crooks who are trying to steal it away from its' rightful heirs, my siblings and myself.  At the end of that post there is the entire series of links to posts that tell the chronology of our court process to get our land back. 

Here is a post I wrote about my mother who was born in Riga Latvia and you can see what Latvian people look like- hee hee- just look at me and my mother. We are very 'Latvian' looking. Latvians claim a nordic/ Viking history. Nestor calls me his 'Viking Princess'. Of course, that means also, to not mess with a Viking:).

The pageans used Evergreen trees in their homes during the Winter months to remind them that soon crops would grow again.  The lighting of the trees with candles came around the same period and it is the story of Martin Luther walking into the woods in northern Germany and saw the stars reflections sparkling on the Evergreen trees. When he went home he added candles to an Evergreen tree and placed it in his home to remind him of the light of Christ.

My mother always had real candles on her Christmas tree in our home every year. Come to think of it, we were very blessed to not have our tree catch on fire! This was a tradition she brought with her from Latvia. In Riga, they have a huge celebration in the town center lighting the Christmas tree and today they even have fireworks on the night of lighting up the first Christmas tree.

The German immigrants that moved to Pennsylvania are the ones who brought the Christmas Tree tradition to America in the 17th Century.  

It is not strange at all that it took so long for the Christmas Tree to come to America because to the New England Puritans (pilgrims), Christmas was very sacred.  The Pilgrims' second governor- William Bradford- attempted to get rid of all symbols or connections to pagean ceremonies and beliefs and you were penalized if you were caught doing such.  Oliver Cromwell preached against any type of heathen traditions including celebrating Christmas in a joyful manner, no singing of Christmas carols, no decorating trees or anything else that would make Christmas appear not to be so sacred.

So now we understand why those people were standing on the side of the road exercising their free speech rights. Their doing so also created for us a really cool learning experience and we came away both myself, mom the teacher at the age of 50 along with my son at the age of 7- learning a lot of new history! How cool is that! Oh, and just so you know, we will continue to celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus on Christmas with Christmas trees, decorations, singing and having a joyous time.

We wish you a very Happy New Year! Thanks for sharing!

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

History of the First Christmas Tree- Roots and All! was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*History of the First Christmas Tree- Roots and All!* 

Wellington Florida Real Estate News: Wellington's Land Development Code Amended

The Wellington Florida Village Council approved to amend the land development code in the Equestrian District. 

What most builders do when there is a land use code that says that you have to build let's say for example- 1 unit per acre, what the builders would do to keep costs per door down is to cluster the building of those homes. So for instance they would build 8 houses on an acre of land and then taking another part of the project and setting aside 3 acres for nature preserves, lakes, equestrian facilities, etc. That way they were still adhering to the code of one house per acre. 

Well, most Equestrian residents are not too keen on having their neighbors that close. So the new code is going to restrict the number of homes that can be built on an acre of land period. No skirting around it. Basically the Village of Wellington's Council is trying to plug up the loop holes. The new code will only allow at the most, three homes per acre. The new rules also make it mandatory that the amenities be for those living within that community and that the new bridle trails must not cross over roads and that the homes must have access to the bridle paths. 

The land use provisions allow for the clustering and so the only thing we can really do about it is to amend the rules and make them tougher to discourage the type of clustering that was taking place during the boom years here in Wellington Florida.

The developers will also have to go before the Wellington Equestrian committee and the Planning and Zoning board with their plans for approvals. 

Cluster developments will only be allowed in one section of the Equestrian District. That section is between Lake Worth Road and Pierson Road, South Shore Bld and 120th Avenue South. The reason that this one area has to be allowed the clustering is because of the Country Club Estates which received approval of such and predates the Village of Wellington's comprehensive plan. 

The Florida State growth management law states that when municipalities create their Comprehensive plans they can not remove a development right associated with an existing development order; which is that section of land for Country Club Estates. 

A lot of residents were not happy when the Equestrian Club, a subdivision on Lake Worth Road in Wellington right smack in the middle of an Equestrian reserve was able to cluster a whole bunch up upscale estate and mini-mansions in that community and then not have any Equestrian centered amenities. Most of the people who live in that community don't even own horses. From now on, with the tougher rules, if a builder wants to say they have an Equestrian community they are going to have to really have amenities like the bridle paths and other horse friendly features. 

We currently have 4 one acre lots listed for sale in the Southfields and Santa Barbara areas of the Equestrian section of Wellington Florida. 

For more information about purchasing land to build your Equestrian estate home on please contact Nestor Gasset, CIPS, ABR, GRI, SFR at 561-753-0135. Nestor is the broker of our company, my husband and partner. Land is one of his areas of expertise and not mine:) So call him to find out more about getting your equestrian estate built here in Wellington Florida. 

Search on our interactive online property search widget below. The search below shows you the lots and land for sale in the Equestrian section of Wellington Florida. You can add in whatever fields you want to and narrow your search. We don't ask for any information for you to use this online system. You don't even have to click to go anywhere else. Convenient and easy. Try it now: 

Wellington Florida Real Estate News: Municipal Complex Ground Breaking Ceremony!  

The Wellington Village Council broke ground for the new Municipal Complex located along Forest Hill Blvd in Wellington on the 5 acre lot that the Village of Wellington bought back in the late 90's and right next to the Village tennis courts and swimming complex. 

The new Wellington Municipal Complex is going to be 54,000 square feet and cost $10.5 million to build. It will become the new Town Center. This complex will have a clock tower, an employee courtyard, council chambers to seat 166 people, a quick stop where you can pick up quick permits and pay your utility bills. It will also house the village administrative offices. 

This will be a centralized location for all village employees and will be the place to go to find out about what is going on in our town. We used to be a village and now we are becoming a small city. 

The new Town Center will also have an amphitheater and a playground called, 'Scott's Place'. This playground will be designed for children of all abilities and those with special needs. 

The building project is being funded by money that is in the Village's Capital Improvement account, some money in savings from impact fees made during the boom years and from Federal Stimulus money. I don't approve of Wellington accepting Federal money for a village project. Councilman Matt Willhite said that this entire project is going to be built without taxing the residents. I beg to differ with him. While the Village of Wellington may not be charging the residents to build the new Town Center, indirectly of course our grand-kids are going to be paying for the Federal part of this money through taxation and inflation. 

Mayor Darrel Bowen says that the Village will be saving about $500,000 a year- savings from current rents they pay out and by consolidating services. That is a good thing. It does not make much sense for a town to be paying rent for their Town Center services. 

The construction should be finished by the end of 2010 and the Council is hoping to have their first Town Council meeting in the new Town Center in 2011. 

To  view Florida Short Sales- Click here. We know Palm Beach County Short Sales and Port St Lucie Florida Short Sales and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your home in Palm Beach County Florida: Call us today.

Wellington Florida Real Estate News: Wellington Florida Municipal Complex Ground Breaking Ceremony! was first published on South- Florida-Luxury-Living.com.

Copyright © 2009 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Wellington Florida Real Estate News: Municipal Complex Ground Breaking Ceremony* 

Back To Bethlehem- We had an a wonderful experience that was not only uplifting spiritually but a top notch real live history lesson of the times and setting of the town of Bethlehem at the time that Jesus was born there. 

At first I did not realize how immersed this experience was going to be. The added blessing was it turned into a field trip for our son who is 7 that we homeschool. He is doing a project on what he learned there and now we are delving more into the history of the day. 

Each year there is a church called The Community of Hope Church that is located just a few minutes from Wellington Florida in a town called- Loxahatchee Florida, that puts on the Town Of Bethlehem re-inactment. This takes all year to plan and then it must take months to execute and set up everything. 

The Town Of Bethlehem is only open for 3 nights. We decided to go on a Sunday night. The line was long! I was happy to stand in line to get into the town and so were all the other people waiting. The setting called for calm and happy attitudes. Small groups of people get to go through the town at a time. 

I am still learning how to use my new Nikon P6000 in the dark. Don't have that down yet, so the photos are not the best but I think you will still get a sense of what the scenes were like. It was very dark and only candlelight to light up the night. 

Talk about realistic. These actors and actresses, all volunteers from their church, talk the way the people talked back in Bethlehem during that period of time. They dressed in period clothing. All the furnishings were as authentic as they could get them. 

As we were arriving at the gate of the town of Bethlehem- the Roman Soldiers were standing guard- looking mean- and bossing us around like we were servants. Our son was asking us why did they talk down to us in this manner and this of course gave us a chance to talk about liberty and freedom and how many people still in the world today are treated this way in their countries. 

We got ushered into the tax station where your head of household, the oldest male, had to sign his family's name to the tax scrolls. Then we are told a story by a Rabi of the day. He was excellent in period and tone. 

The town was a bustling little village consisting of store fronts that were typical of the day. There were women and girls baking bread and selling (pretending) their finished loaves. We were able to see why bread was considered such a precious food! It was hard to make in those days. Our son watched in bewilderment as the ladies there were taking the wheat plant, removing the wheat and grinding all of that by hand. Then it continued to be worked, ingredients added and then of course, kneaded. They actually cooked the bread loaves in a wood burning outdoor type oven and then we got to sample the bread. It was delicious. 

We saw the sword and knife welders, the blacksmith, boys selling camels and goats, music stores, herb and medicinal stores, jewelry and furniture stores. Then our son watched the girls weaving yarn on weaving tables in order to make the cloth to make the robes they wore in those days. 

It was such an interesting and well thought out and well designed Town of Bethlehem. 

They also had a record turnout with over 7000 people going through this town in the three night period. 

After you go through the village you get to go into the manger and see Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus. There a young adult is playing the guitar and we all sing Silent Night together. 

Everyone is treated with either water, hot chocolate or apple cider in the hospitality area. 

We will definitely be going back again next year to this event of the Town of Bethlehem. If you have not been there yet, mark your calendars for next December to be there. 

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year to all our friends, family, clients,  and active rainers.