Tampa Florida Real Estate News Blog

Hillsborough County releasing $1.18 million for first time homebuyers 2/5/10

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:10:00 GMT

FIrst time homebuyers in Hillsborough county now have an additional source of funds in addition to the $8000 tax credit. The county is releasing $1.18 Million dollars on 2/5/10 on a first come first served basis.

Homes For Sale in Lake St. Charles, Riverview, Florida

Admin FPFteam — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:36:00 GMT

Short Sale

• 1,772 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm single story - MLS® $150,000

Lake St. Charles, Riverview - Short Sale. This beautiful 1772 Sq. Ft. 3 bedroom + office/den or 4th bedroom, 2 bath home shows like a model. Nice open Great Room floorplan. Volume ceiling throughout. Eat in Kitchen also has breakfast bar. All appliances included. Formal Dining Room overlooks the Great Room. Large 15 x 11 Master Bedroom. Covered Lanai. Community amenities include: Pool, 2+ miles of paved nature trails around the 72 acre lake, clubhouse, playgrounds, dog park, soccer, basketball and tennis courts. Very convenient location with quick access to Hwy 301, I-75, and the Crosstown Expressway with no East-West corridor traffic. Minutes to all the Brandon Shopping and Dining.

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Luxury Waterfront Homes For Sale in Lake Weeks, Seffner, Florida

Admin FPFteam — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:42:00 GMT

• 4,256 sq. ft., 4 bath, 6 bdrm 2 story - MLS® $529,000

Lake Weeks, Seffner - Rare Opportunity to own a home on Lake Weeks incredible setting-OV This fabulous family home is nestled beneath a gorgeous Grandfather Oak on the end of a Cul-de-sac! Double leaded door leads you into this home which has 2 bedrooms down- including the master- and 4 bedrooms up. Notice the gorgeous dark stained hard wood floors throughout the first floor & exquisite light fixtures! The lovely formal rooms in the front of the house set the stage for this amazing home. Gourmet kitchen features tile floor, gas cook top, convection oven, cherry cabinets W/crown, corian counters, tile backsplash & 9 ft island. The sunny breakfast nook has 3 walls of windows! The family room is spectacular with one wall of built-ins & triple sliders to the lanai! The soaring ceiling and the two-way staircase are really quite dramatic! The separate master suite includes a sitting area, walk in closet & luxurious bathroom with his & hers sinks & a jetted tub. All the bedrooms are oversized with walk-in california closets! You also have a loft & a huge bonus/media room! From there you can access the balcony with an incredible view! The oversized screened lanai has pavers, stacked stone accents and a stunning view of the extraordinary pool and spa. Truly a remarkable home! Call (800) 975-7205 today to schedule a private tour.

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SKYPOINT CONDOS IN TAMPA FL ARE NOW FHA/ VA Approved

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:39:00 GMT

Fha/ VA financing is available on all remaining BRAND NEW luxury Skypoint condos in Tampa Florida.
1 Bedroom Units - #2311, #2511, #2707 ,#3109 - From $189K.
2 Bedroom Units - #301, #806, #2502, #2503 - From $275K.
Please call (800) 975-7205 for more details, showings and pricing.

Get Cash for "Clunky" Home Appliances

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:56:00 GMT

The federal government is implementing a rebate program for appliances in order to vamp up energy efficiency. You can swap in your old home appliances for new energy-efficient ones, saving electricity and saving on your monthly utility bills.

A twenty year old fridge can use 3x as much energy as a new Energy Star approved fridge. The age of your appliances impact your actual savings, so check into it before purchasing.

The program is tentatively scheduled to begin in April 2010 and is scheduled to last two weeks. The State of Florida will implement a mail-in rebate program to help residents replace older, inefficient appliances with ENERGY STAR^® qualified appliances.

Eligible products include

Refrigerators
Freezers
Clothes washers
Dishwashers
Room air conditioners
Gas tankless water heaters

Florida will offer residents a 20% rebate off the price of a new ENERGY STAR qualified appliance. Consumers may also receive an additional rebate with proof of having recycled the old appliance.

Check out www.energysavers.gov for details.

1316 E Osborne Ave in Seminole Heights, Tampa, Florida is Sold!

Admin FPFteam — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:40:00 GMT

Seminole Heights, Tampa - The single story home at 1316 E Osborne Ave has been sold.

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Townhouse For Sale in Northdale, Tampa, Florida

Admin FPFteam — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:18:00 GMT

Diamond in the Rough! • townhouse - MLS® $75,000 - Great Deal! Northdale, Carrollwood - Short sale. Charming townhome in the well established Northdale area of Tampa! This townhome boasts 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and spacious living areas throughout....(read more)

Mortgage Fraud

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:02:00 GMT

This was emailed to me... thought I should post it... Michael

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please make your potential clients aware of the following.

Please read our story below so that you can see how we were tricked into a complex scam of equity stripping, flipping steering and other methods to take our families properties. I am beginning a media campaign soon but I though it would be a good idea to write to you first in the hope that you might be able to get us some help in prosecuting these people.

Thank you Ray Shelton

Re: Jim Marks, Barry Silber, Linear Capitial located in Tampa Florida For Media Release...

Remember if you are dealing with an unscrupulous licensed professional (attorney, mortgage broker, etc.) you can file a grievance with the licensing agency who will investigate, prosecute if necessary, and possibly require restitution.

Comment:

[Editor’s Note: If con men looked like crooks they wouldn't get anywhere. They always ingratiate themselves and seem like good people interested in helping. They intentionally do not appear to be much different from legitimate lawyers, auditors, debt counseling etc.

A Warning to others having Mortgage problems: Re: A family of predatory lenders…

Our family was having some problems with our first mortgage we got behind and were facing a potential foreclosure.

We got a lot of the typical rescue mailers telling us that we had plenty of equity and not to worry. We knew this and we only needed 20 to 30 thousand dollars to bring the loan current. Plus we knew we could sell another property that would pay off part of our loan at any time. That seemed simple enough,.

Now let the Barry Silber & Jim Marks nightmare begin…

We were approached by a broker / lender named Jim Marks out of Tampa Florida who said he could rescue us and the rates would be very low because we had so much equity in our waterfront home. He said he could find us plenty of money. We were very clear to him that we did not have the income to do any major loan an we only needed a small amount.

History of a complex scam: Jim Marks first statement when he came to our home" This is a beautiful place you have, I would give anything to have a place like this"... Jim Marks (a foreclosure rescue operator front man for Barry Silber linear capital) cons us by befriending our family during our financial hardships, he got our confidence by calling all the time with offers to help us and he was coming over to our home as often as he could, he had lunch many time in our home and took me out to other places all the while telling me how much he could help us with our waterfront property, he even brought food over to feed our family, used our boats went snorkeling and diving on our boat with his family they even brought their big dog. Everything was great he look like and acted like a good man that we could trust. But we were so very wrong, he had a clear mission that was assisted by Barry Silber to get control of our property. Then after he found out that our family had ot!

her valuable waterfront properties he started to work very hard at helping us in any way that he could. He also brought out investors to see what we had, like a complete sucker I showed them everything. They also asked if I knew others who had waterfront properties and were in trouble with their loans. it wasn't until the damage was done that we found out that the investors were his own relatives (Barry Silber the lawyer lender from Linear Capital). Barry Silber over time created very complex agreements / then loan agreement with side agreements that default our family and within one year they got everything. SPECIAL NOTE: If combining our families properties to our home mortgage default cause a usury crime, Barry Silber may be looking at some very serious federal violation involving Rico if he got over 45%. We were without question steered right into Barry Silber hands by our friend Jim Marks who was suppose to be finding us a better loan. My attorney says the intere!

st rate is way over the 45% usury limit and we are in court. Now tha t Barry Silber and Jim Marks have all our and our families property and future income Silber and Marks are trying to sell everything. To date they have sold aprox one million dollars in assets and now they are attempting to take our home via a foreclosure.

Jim Marks assisted by Silber structured a complex deal putting everything into the [deal?] that we already owned, they created a corporation for our family, as a JV partner Marks took 50% and gave us 50%, but took complete control of everything, he sold land we had, used the money for other purchases, took out loans without approval from our family. Within the early agreement marks created, Marks was unable to do any transaction over $100.00 dollars. so this is also corp fraud.

As we were about to sell three of our waterfront lots and an investment home, Marks said don't do it put it in the JV that I have created for your family and we will do much better in the long run but we had to turn all of the property to him. At first we rejected him but then he said that he would have to foreclose on us if we didn't give him more assets. So we now started to see some real problems but just prior to that we trusted Marks with everything including the check book.

We thought he was our friend and he promised that he would managed and protect us but boy were we wrong.

We had no idea that it was all a set up from the very beginning to get control of everything we had. It is clear now that we had a big target on our backs called equity. But the worse thing is that we believe that Barry Silber violate many codes of conduct as an attorney and we will be filing complaints with the bar. Was Silber using Jim Marks as the front man for Linear capital? We can't be sure at this time. But we were steered by Mr Marks right into what I now believe was nothing more than family of Predatory Lenders and now if you follow the money Barry Silber gained at least 40 percent of everything and Marks got the rest.

They got me and my family by saying that they could rescue us and rebuild our credit but all we got was high interest rates etc etc. Marks flipped loans consolidated other loans on to our home mortgage and eventually forced us into a foreclosure, but Marks always stood by with additional high cost loans in order to get Marks to stop their own foreclosures. We were trapped.

BACK ROOM LATE NITE DEALS: We were forced by Marks and Silber to meet after hours at their offices to sign more rushed document that we did not really understand. (e.s.) Jim Marks would say don't worry I got your back and would never let you sign anything that would hurt you or your family. Papers were shuffled around and recreated for hours by the lawyer/lender Barry Silber and their title company. Note: They owned and controlled the title company.

We did not want to sign anything but we were up against the wall and the mortgages that they gave us were all due again. They took a years worth of payments up front that night and paid themselves many fees. Now we had a new giant mortgage shifted to our home that was due in one year, it also had a devastating rider that would take away all our rights to the JV that controlled all our Families properties. We naturally defaulted within the year.

We always told Jim Marks that we couldn't pay the payments and he said don't worry we will sell something in the JV to pay this off or refinance you again. The lawyer involved was Mr Mark’s relative, Barry Silber was also part of the company that gave us one or more of the mortgages. Before that year was up his cousin Barry Silber started foreclosure on everything and then said they could not lend any more money. What is astounding is that our Mortgage on our home was now over $ 1 million dollars. How did this happen in just 3 years?

How did we allow some one to take all our families properties? First we trusted Jim Marks as a friend and business partner. But he was clearly working his way into our family and eventually found out every aspect of our assets and liabilities. Second: We were not very smart with our finances. Third: We don't have much of an education and trusted him because he said he could handle everything properly.

Now we see that they were all very smart and we were conned over and over again into trusting a family of hard money lenders who had one motivation and that was to milk us of all our equity by what ever means possible. We all feel very bad because we let this happen to our families holdings. We believe that state and federal laws have been broken and we have submitted complaints with many local and federal law enforcement agency's. We would like others to give their advise or their own story if they have one. In the final days Jim Marks ended our relationship by saying" He thought it would be a good idea if we quick claimed our home to his relative Barry Silber to avoid another foreclosure" So Don't ever fall for someone trying to rescue you with a hand of friendship.

I can tell all of you that this web site has helped in many ways. Keep it going and report mortgage abuses to every agency possible. don't let them get away with this kind of behavior. Media and Law Enforcement Take Notice

13021 TERRACE SPRINGS DR in Hidden Oaks, Temple Terrace, Florida is Sold!

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT

Hidden Oaks, Temple Terrace - The 2 story at 13021 TERRACE SPRINGS DR has been sold.

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Waterfront Townhouse For Sale in Palm River Townhomes, Tampa, Florida

Admin FPFteam — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:47:00 GMT

Picture Perfect Townhome in Tampa!

• 1,200 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm townhouse - MLS® $160,000

Palm River Townhomes, Tampa - Located just minutes from downtown Tampa, Channelside and Ybor City, this gorgeous townhome features spectacular water views overlooking the bay and downtown from your 3rd story balcony, or other 2 screened patios. This gated community has a small-town atmosphere with the convenience of big-city amenities which make it a great place to live. Not a short sale.

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Obama signs bill: Homebuyer tax credit extended

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:44:00 GMT

Note that this information is outdated.

It's now law: Buyers get 5 more months to sign a contract, 7 more months to close; Fla. downpayment aid program extended; some move-up buyers get $6,500.

Senate panel OKs extension of $8K tax credit

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:56:00 GMT

Note that this information is outdated.

But it's not a done deal yet. Current version adds a credit for non-first-time buyers and raises income limits

FAIR HOUSING CELEBRATION

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:20:00 GMT

Note that this information is outdated.

In commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the City of Tampa Office of Human Rights and GTAR's Fair Housing Committee bring you, "¡Celebracion! Vivienda Justa", "Celebration, Fair Housing", on Thursday, October 29 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in GTAR's Auditorium. This is a free bilingual (Spanish/English) seminar open to the general public. Topics presented include: Know Your Rights, Buy Your Home Using Down Payment Assistance, Avoid Predatory Lenders, Establish & Manage Your Credit, and MORE! Invited presenters are: HUD, City of Tampa, Credit Counseling Center, SunTrust, 5/3 Bank, plus others. Check-in: 5 p.m., Program: 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Door PRIZES, FREE admission & light dinner! Please contact City of Tampa at 813-274-5856

6303 WILD ORCHID DR in Fish Hawk Trails, Lithia, Florida is Sold!

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:56:00 GMT

Fish Hawk Trails, Fishhawk Ranch - The single story home at 6303 WILD ORCHID DR has been sold.

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2903 N Ashley Dr #777 in Skypoint is Sold!

MICHAEL VALDES & ASSOCIATES — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:31:00 GMT

Skypoint, Tampa - The hi-rise luxury condo located at 2903 N Ashley Dr #777 has been sold.

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