James Andrew Ryan pleaded guilty to four counts of forgery involving fictitious quitclaim deeds. In each instance, Ryan went looking for what he judged to be run-down homes with unkempt yards. He wrote down the address and researched the owner’s name through county records. Ryan then forged the owner’s name on a quitclaim deed and finished it off with a bogus notary public seal. The phony quitclaim deed, showing the owner’s interest conveyed to Ryan, was then recorded at the Pierce County, Wash., auditor’s office.

The Ryan case may be the first known case of real estate fraud focusing of run-down homes coupled with bogus quitclaim deeds. The most common real estate fraud known as equity skimming, or rent skimming, typically includes a supposedly good-hearted investor looking to help a desperate homeowner. Instead, the investor persuades the homeowner into believing the investor will pay the bank a sum of cash to keep the mortgage from going into default if the homeowner “rents back” the home from the investor. The investor then runs off with two to three months of rent and sometimes even the title to the house. (more…)

search for : fictitious quitclaim deeds

Fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages are the two main types of mortgages of the home-lending world. Let’s take a look at the differences. A fixed-rate mortgage is very straightforward. The borrower knows from the beginning what the interest rate will be for the entire duration of the mortgage, and the monthly payments due are likewise fixed. Simple.

Slightly less simple is the adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM. It changes from year to year, to reflect the interest rate environment. If rates are plummeting, your rate will also drop — and vice versa. ARMs typically have an extra-low “teaser rate” for the first year, as well as an upper limit, or cap. The amount that an ARM can rise each year is also limited, so that it won’t rise too quickly. Fixed-rate mortgages are good because they come with no surprises. But for this benefit, you’ll likely pay a slightly higher rate than you would with an ARM. Fixed-rate mortgages are good for people who enjoy stability. They’re also especially attractive during periods when interest rates are low, such as they have been in recent years. At such times, fixed-rate mortgages permit you to lock in low rates for many years to come. (more…)

search for : Fixed-rate, adjustable-rate mortgage

What happened to the American Chestnut tree? It was wiped out by blight from a fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. The fungus was first discovered in Bronx Zoological Park, Bronx, NY in 1904 and spread throughout the entire range of the American chestnut reaching our mountains and destroying most mature tress by 1930s and just about all by the 1950s. The fungus was introduced by Japanese Chestnut trees imported into the United States in the late 1800’s.

There are two organizations working to restore the American chestnut to the forest: the American Chestnut Cooperators’ Foundation (ACCF) and the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF). The ACCF intercrosses 100% American chestnut trees selected for native resistance to the blight and seeks to develop a tree with natural resistance. The ACF has been working on breeding hybrids of American and Chinese chestnut trees since 1983. Trees are selected from each generation based on their ability to resist the fungus and have the characteristics of the American chestnut. The early hybrids were 50% American and 50% Chinese chestnut. Today there are trees that are 94% American. The goal is to have trees with no Chinese chestnut characteristics except resistance to the blight. (more…)

search for : American Chestnut tree

A recent analysis of American commuting habits confirms what many weary workers already know: Commutes are getting longer. More Americans than ever are leaving home at 5 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. to beat the traffic. The number of workers who drive more than an hour to work rose more than 50 percent from 1990 to 2000, a study released last month by the Transportation Research Board found. One way to escape gridlock is to work from home. You’ll get more sleep, and you may be eligible for some tax breaks. The home-office deduction lets you deduct a portion of your mortgage interest or rent, utilities, insurance and even repairs to your home.

People who work from home because their employers don’t want to provide them with office space are eligible to deduct some of their home-office expenses. If your employer does provide you with an office or a cubicle, you don’t qualify, even if you work from home most of the time, says Keith Stanton, an enrolled agent in Nashville. Once you’ve established that you’re eligible for the deduction, you’ve got another hurdle to clear. Your home-office expenses are categorized as miscellaneous expenses on Schedule A of Form 1040. Those expenses must exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI) before you can deduct them, says Mark Luscombe, tax analyst for tax publisher CCH. (more…)

search for : work from home, home-office deduction

The development of Laurelmor, located on 6,000 acres of land between Boone and Blowing Rock NC, has been the source of much controversy since the company first announced its intentions to create a property of 1,500 single-family residences catering to high-income earners. The minimum income earned by an individual purchasing a Ginn property is around $125,000 per year, Jim Matoska, executive vice president of Ginn Real Estate, said.

Concerns about the development’s impact on the Boone NC region include the possibility that it will drive up home prices in an increasingly unaffordable area and put strain on the area’s already limited natural resources, such as water. To ease some of those concerns, Ginn Resorts agreed to donate about 45 percent of the Laurelmor property to the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust. According to a Ginn press release, this was “an unprecedented partnership agreement between a real estate developer and an environmental organization.” (more…)

search for : Laurelmor, Blowing Rock NC, Boone NC, Ginn Resorts, Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust, real estate developer, environmental organization

The value of a 40-acre wooded lot lies in the eye of the beholder. To farmers, woods have little value compared with the cropland they till. But a hunter or bird-watcher may be willing to pay thousands of dollars for a tree-lined property in the country. The growing demand for recreational land is fueling a rise in the value of wooded lots.

Real estate companies putting farms up for sale now have the option of dividing the land into sections and marketing it separately to different categories of buyers, Halderman said. The seller can make more money by selling woods for recreational use and marketing tillable land as farm ground, he said. This approach won’t work for every wooded property, Dobbins said. Recreational land buyers are looking for specific features, including trees, wildlife and ponds or rivers. The size and location of the property also affect its marketability, he said. (more…)

search for : wooded lot, recreational land