Homeowners in Foreclosure are Demanding the Bank to Produce the Note

Ginny Mees posted important information for all homeowners facing forclosure on SingleWomanHomeowner.com.

It seems with all repackaging and reselling of loans over the last few years, banks are having a hard time locating the original loan documents. The courts have ruled that homeowners in foreclosure have the right to demand that the bank produce the original documnets with the borrowers signature to prove that the bank indeed owns the note and has the right to foreclose.

Stay Out! How to Keep Hackers from Breaking your Password

My buddy, Tom Proell from Prialto sent me a system for creating passwords that they recommend to their clients.

Easy-to-guess passwords can be devastating, as personal information can be stolen, used, and abused. As a proactive measure, we at Prialto provided our members with tips on how to create strong and secure passwords to help keep their personal information safe. Here it is for the benefit of Harper-Mees readers:

To start, don’t use actual words that can be found in any dictionary. Don’t use the names of family members or pets.

Instead, construct a sentence that you can easily remember. For example, if you’re a big soccer fan, you can probably remember something like this:

Soccer is fun to watch and a great exercise for me!

or

David Beckham is a soccer star and my favorite player.

The next step is to take such sentences and use the first letter of each word to create an acronym. In the process, look for words that can be substituted with numbers or symbols: “to” may be substituted with “2”; “for” may be substituted with “4”; “star” may be substituted with an asterisk (*); “and” may be substituted with an ampersand (&).

Now, let’s create our passwords.

“Soccer is fun to watch and a great exercise for me!” becomes: Sif2w&age4m! 

“David Beckham is a soccer star and my favorite player.” becomes: DBias*&mfp.

No one is going to guess these passwords. Passwords like these appear to be completely random, and are, therefore, meaningless to other people. Plus, their lengths can be adjusted to satisfy character requirements for individual accounts.

Even with unique passwords, however, it is still wise to avoid using the same password for everything. Create different passwords for different accounts. For those accounts that don’t have sensitive information, you can use simpler passwords – just don’t make them too simple!Have fun creating new, strong, and secure passwords!

You can email Tom or call him at 650-489-4144 to learn more about Prialto and personal assistance outsourcing.

 John Laing Homes Builder of Roubion in San Ramon Files for Bankruptcy

In August of 2008, East Bay Business Times ran this story – John Laing Homes relocating in East Bay – Home builder John Laing Homes plans to relocate its Bay Area office, currently in Pleasanton, into smaller quarters along the Interstate 680 corridor after consolidating operations due to a slumping housing market.

On February , 2009, Channel 10 in Sacramento ran this story – John Laing Homes Shuts Down Sacramento Projects – The builder had eight new home communities in various stages of construction in Lincoln, Roseville, Sacramento and Folsom. Bay Area communities shut down are in Vallejo, San Ramon, Fremont and Sunnyvale, according to sources.

John Laing Homes was consistently recognized as one of the premiere home builders in the country.

J.D. POWER AND ASSOCIATES | ranked John Laing Homes in the top three for Customer Satisfaction by JD Power and Associates spanning from Sacramento, Los Angeles/Ventura, Orange County to Denver/Colorado Springs*.

BUILDER OF THE YEAR | A national award given by Professional Builder magazine

MOST ADMIRED BUILDER | A national award from Big Builder magazine, given to builders who view excellence as an infinite process.

NAMED TOP 10 | in the nation in overall customer satisfaction by the prestigious market research firm Eliant

BUILDER OF THE DECADE | A national award from Eliant for customer satisfaction.

AMERICA'S BEST BUILDER | A national award from Builder magazine and the National Association of Home Builders.

John Laing Homes won't be the last casualty of the declining housing market and worsening economy. The California Building Industry Association recently forecast construction of 63,400 units statewide during 2009. That would be 3 percent less than the record-low 65,380 units built in 2008.

While new home construction sinks and housing prices continue to settle, home sales continue to rise as investors and home buyers take advantage of slumping prices.

Our FREE In-Depth Market reports updated weekly, break data down by zip code and price point.

Contact Ginny for more help on home pricing  925-699-3328

Ginny Mees Launches SingleWomanHomeowner.com

My partner, Ginny Mees, has launched a NorthAmerican website for single women homeowners – SingleWomanHomeowner.com. Over the years, Ginny noticed that a significant amount of her real estate clients were single women homeowners – divorcees, never been marrieds, and widows. Her single women clients and homeowners, had different needs, priorities and issues regarding home ownership.

SingleWomanHomeowner.com has two primary focuses:

1. Providing an online gathering place where women can find information and resources on home ownership and associated concerns.
2. Establishing a North American Women-to-Women Network where single women homeowners and aspiring homeowners can connect with local professional groups of women that have expertise in working with women and home ownership issues.

"Single Women Homeowners represent the second largest group of home buyers in the U.S. and Canada. I've been thinking about launching a site like this for about 2 years and decided the time was right. The site is about 85% complete and I thought it was time to let my professional colleagues around the country know about what we are doing."

Ginny has been working feverishly to get SingleWomanHomeowner.com ready. Her energy and enthusiasm for this project is awe inspiring. Last week, she told a few of her female Realtor friends about the site and the subscriptions started pouring in.

Her Women-to-Women network allows real estate & homeownership professionals to have exclusive representation on the site for specified zip codes in the U.S. and Canada. She has spent months developing a step-by-step marketing plan to help local groups establish themselves as the recognized experts in working with single women homeowners.

Mock Service Night at the Walnut Creek CA Cheesecake Factory

Holly & Greg Beck (Balloonman) accompanied us to the new Walnut Creek Cheesecake Factory last night to attend the pre-opening mock service. Last night and tonight is the final training run for the 120+ employees before the doors open for real on Thursday.

There is just no doubt that the Cheesecake Factory is going to do a booming business at this location in Walnut Creek. There is outdoor seating with fireplaces and overhead heating which will be extremely popular.

With the Cinemark theaters just across the street, the Cheesecake Factory will become the obvious place to stop for dinner or lunch before or after a movie. We are hoping that the foot traffic created by the Cheesecake Factory will help nearby business like Palomas survive & thrive. It will also be nice to see more adult activity in this area which has become the defacto gathering place of choice for teens (teen smoking continues to amaze me).

Coming in the front door of the Cheesecake Factory, we found Tania on the phone and the greeting staff spinning like whirling dervishes as they hustled to seat the rush of guests eager to sample the delights – not the least of which is the decor.The room was filled with oohs and ahs in response to the deco.

The cheesecake case was filled with more calories than the East Bay chapters of Weight Watchers could burn in a year. Thank goodness the Cheesecake Factory has those lowcal offerings for those struggling with the memories of leaner and meaner times.

I had the opportunity to meet Max Escuder, the general manager, who invited us to the evening event. I was surprised that he was so young – and slim! Surely he samples the product??

I had our server Joshua jump in the booth with Jane, Holly and Greg for a quick pic.

For an appetizer, we tried the fresh-made guacamole (mild). I suggest adding a little more zing to it. The Cheesecake Factory will make it as spicy as you want.

Holly had the wasabi crusted ahi tuna; Greg the chicken madera; Jane the petite sirloin andI sampled the fish and chips. Each of us had a glass of wine and we split two pieces of cheesecake (key lime & turtle) with coffee.

The bill would have been about $150, but Max Escuder was picking up the bill for the entire crowd – thank you MAX!

The major suggestion I would make is – better coffee. The three of that had coffee agreed that it lacked flavor and body – not the way to end a good meal. Considering all the pluses, if I was rating the Cheesecake Factory on a five-star scale, I'd give them 3 and a half to four stars. 

The Cheesecake Factory in Walnut Creek will be seeing more of my green and I'm sure they will probably get some of yours, too.