Rob Robinson- Lehigh Valley PA

As always - I support the Landis family when an event is put out to the public. The below looks DELICIOUS. I'll have to see if I can fit this into the schedule.

Enjoy

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Greetings Friends:

Hope all is well. We are very excited to announce the final details of our upcoming wine dinner at Pacifico Restaurant in the new Saucon Valley Promanade Shopping Center. The dinner will be next Thursday October 16th

• Reception and Hour d'Oeuvres beginning at 6:30 and dinner to begin at 7:00pm.
  

• The cost of the dinner is $55.00 per person plus tax and gratuity.
  

• Sam Landis of Vynecrest Winery will be there taking you through course by course the pairings of food and wine.

If you have not been there before you won't want to miss this, they have a fantastic menu with a very eclectic mix of dishes. For more information and directions check out their website Pacifico



For Reservations Please call Pacifico at 610 -798-9666

Below is the menu of food and wine for the evening.

Reception
Passed Hors d-Oeuvres
Pinot Gris, Lehigh Valley 2007
Maryland Crabcakes (sauteed jumbo lump crab cake with a kiwi-mango sauce)
Duck Empanadas (with tomato and golden raisin relish)
Mini Lobster & Avocado Quesadillas (chipolte creme fraiche)

First Course
Dry Riesling, Lehigh Valley, 2007
Shrimp Ceviche (Ecuadorian shrimp ceviche with avocado, tomato, cilantro, and red onions)
Second Course
Traminette, Lehigh Valley, 2007
Tuna Tostadas (seared tuna tostadas with black-guacamole with creme fraiche and srirachi)

Entree
Chambourcin, Lehigh Valley, 2007
Seafood Paella (saffron rice with shrimp, clams, mussels, sea scallops, chorizo and chicken) OR
Salmon al Sarten (pan-seared plantain-crusted salmon with shrimp and yucca enchiladas and a sofritto sauce) OR
Churrasco Surf & Turf (grilled skirt steak with lobster fried rice, grilled jumbo shrimp and a braised garlic mojito sauce)

Dessert
Cherry DiVyne
Trio of Chocolate, Dulce de Leche, and Pumpkin Desserts

For reservation please call Pacifico (610) 798-9666

--
John, Jan & Sam Landis
Vynecrest Winery
www.vynecrest.com
610-398-7525

The Ohio Association of Independent Title Agents filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court against Mary Jo Hudson, the director of the Ohio Department of Insurance. The suit claims that the director and her department have failed to enforce currently existing rules prohibiting banks, Realtors and mortgage brokers and their subsidiaries, also known as controlled business arrangements, from engaging in the business of title insurance. The association seeks to prevent the spread of kickbacks and referral schemes in the real estate industry by asking the Ohio Supreme Court to compel Hudson's office to comply with current laws.

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It's nice to see legal action taken against the INSURANCE COMMISSION as another front in the war against these sad arrangements of financial reward for referral business which in many cases does not put the client in the best position.

And a brilliant blog by Robert Franco of Source of Title - well worth reading

http://www.sourceoftitle.com/blog_node.aspx?uniq=397

I just joined this ActiveRain BNI group......didn't know it existed until I RE-READ a thread I made over a year ago (I'm a moron).

http://activerain.com/blogsview/121789/LOCAL-NETWORKING-GROUPS

So.... is this group very active? I just bounced through a couple blogs. Are you bringing BNI experiances, suggestions to the table, etc?

I saw some thread title about using AR to assist in BNI referrals... and I never even thought of that. I would think a well written blog placed into localism may be a method of driving business to the group.

In any case... I seem to come and go in AR....like a Real Estate cycle :^O ...... but look forward to reading your BNI related blogs and comments.

Rob Robinson

Bertrum Settlements - Title & Abstract

BNI Allentown II

(Allentown PA)

Anyone in the area - let me know

Some of you know that many moons ago, I actually blogged about important issues that I faced day to day or experiences.

One common theme was my absolute HATRED of Affiliated Business Arrangements (AfBA's) in which RESPA allows legal kickbacks from TITLE Companies to Realtors and/or Mortgage Brokers.

From the client standpoint, this of course may not be the best option. The Title company being recommended by the Realtor or LO is in almost all cases being recommended because of the money kickback. The vast majority of consumers do not really know what a Title company does, assume the Realtor/LO has their interests in mind when steering them (yeah right).

While scoping out SOT (Source of Title), basically an Abstractor site - I came across an organization in OHIO formed by independent Title Companies.... quite an interesting concept to unify against the 'big boys' and bring integrity back into the industry.

Has anyone come across organizations like this in their states?

http://www.oaita.org/