Largo, FL

Whittington Court is gorgeous 107 unit townhome complex in Largo. The townhomes have fabulous floor plans. Each town home has the master suite on the ground floor, gorgeous balcolnies, elegant kitchens, and a two car garage. The homes have three bedrooms and 2 and a half baths. The square footage is 1865 to 2240 square feet. Whittington Court has lush landscaping and vintage streetlamps to give the complex a unique feel. These homes show Bayfair's commitment to excellence by its quality design and construction.

Residents will love the amenities of Whitington Court. They will be able to cool off in a resort style pool. The can enjoy a spacious outdoor gathering area with a fireplace. There is also a fitness center for those who wat to stay fit. The prices for these beautiful townhomes start in the mid $200,000's.

Come enjoy Whittington Court. It was one of the 2007 Parade of Hmes winners. It is located close to the Gulf beaches, wonderful shopping and dining, great schools and Tampa International Airport. Its central location makes it easy for residents to commute to Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater or go sunbathing at the beaches.

The contents of this posting are the property of Pam Mabe and Solaris Realty of TampaBay. To view homes for sale in the Pinellas and Hillsborough area, click on Tampa Homes and then fill in the information on your dream home.

The Federal Housing Administration shook up Washington's mortgage and real estate leaders last week by announcing that it's shifting its entire production line to risk-based pricing -- starting this summer.

FHA plans to abandon its 74-year policy of charging all borrowers the same insurance premiums and interest rates, and to move to a system where applicants who present high risks -- low credit scores and low downpayments -- pay higher premiums.

Though private mortgage insurers have been using this approach since the mid-1990s, it's a big move for FHA. Currently the agency charges a standard one and a half percent up front premium, and a half percent annual renewal premium -- all of which are folded into monthly mortgage payments.

Under the new system, applicants with FICO scores below 560 and downpayments below five percent, will be charged a two and a quarter percent premium up front and 0.55 percent annually.

Low risk borrowers will almost all pay less than they do today: A 1.25 percent premium up front, and annual renewals of half a percent with downpayments of 10 percent or more. High FICO borrowers with score above 680 making downpayments of less than 5 percent will also save on upfront premiums, paying one and a quarter percent.

The switch should be good news for the majority of FHA new customers. Officials say the FHA program in 2008 is attracting a bumper crop of higher credit quality applicants with scores in the high 600s and 700s.

FHA's volume is also booming -- it's doubled in the past six months and could hit a 20 percent market share this year, according to mortgage banking industry analysts.

Though some Democrats in Congress and private mortgage insurance competitors have criticized FHA's risk-based pricing plan, the agency says it has both the legal authority and the business "imperative" to prevent losses to its insurance fund caused by low-FICO home buyers, especially those using seller-funded downpayment "gifts."

In its official outline of its plans in the Federal Register last week, FHA rejected criticism that low-income borrowers will pay more. To the contrary, a statistical analysis of FHA's 2007 vintage of customers found that applicants with lower incomes had higher FICO scores on average than applicants with higher incomes.

All of which means that anybody with solid credit -- irrespective of income -- should get a better deal from the new FHA approach than they would have gotten under the old system.

In the current credit crunch, that's gotta be good news.

Here's a question which ought to cause some thought: Why is it -- if we're in the middle of a mortgage meltdown -- that interest rates are both low and falling?

With fewer lenders, fewer loan products and tougher qualification standards you might reasonably expect nervous investors to want higher rates to compensate for more risk. Instead, we're seeing just the opposite.

• Freddie Mac reported that interest levels for 30-year fixed-rate financing dropped to 5.88 percent plus .4 points last week. This rate is not much above the historic levels reached during the summer of 2003 when fixed rates dipped to 5.21 percent with .5 points.

• The one-year LIBOR rate hit 2.51 percent in March, according to HSH.com, a financial publisher. A year ago the index was at 5.32 percent.

• The ever-conservative 11th District Cost of Funds Index is at 3.56 percent -- down from 4.3 percent a year ago.

The declines we're seeing with interest rates appear to make no sense -- unless the supply of mortgage money continues to remain at exceptionally high levels. That's apparently the case, otherwise how else can one explain today's mortgage levels?

For most of us the reason why rates have fallen doesn't actually matter. What does matter is that rates are low relative to both recent levels and historic standards. Whether such bargain-basement interest levels will continue cannot be assured -- and that's reason enough to speak with a mortgage professional like Will Merritt www.tampabayloanofficer.com if you have an interest in financing or refinancing real estate at this time.

The Law of Attraction is potentially one of the most powerful tools you'll ever have as a Real Estate Agent. Why? Because it helps you to train your mind into a successful and prosperous mindset. In other words, if you practice the Law of Attraction you're always looking at the opportunities for growing your business rather than the obstacles.

If you're not getting the results you want with the Law of Attraction, it's possible that you might be making these common mistakes:

1. Failure to switch focus

It may be that when you start looking at what you don't like about your business, i.e. the difficult clients, the "fallen transactions," and the continual need to prospect, you may be focusing on what you "don't want," instead of what you do want. The Law of Attraction states that you get what you focus on. Focus on the difficult clients long enough, and that's what you will bring more of.

2. Failure to identify what you "do want"

You may be spending so much time and energy trying to eliminate what you don't want, like unqualified clients; you may not be getting clear on what you do want. If you don't want unqualified clients, then what are the characteristics that you really want in prospective clients?

If you're like most people, you want prospective clients to be qualified, committed, and motivated. Then focus on that. Whenever your mind wanders, keep coming back to what you want to create.

3. Focusing on current circumstances

According to the Law of Attraction, current circumstances do not have to define you. They are based on your old decisions and your old beliefs. Now that you are learning the Law of Attraction, you have a chance to start fresh.

Never mind your current conditions, instead ask yourself, "What do I want to create?" Set your intention and don't waver.

4. You get worried about the "how to"

According to the Law of Attraction, "how to" is the domain of the universe. You don't have to know the details. You just have to know what you want, and why you want it. Let the Universe figure out the "how".

5. You take "frantic action," rather than "inspired action"

Frantic action is fear-based. You are being reactive rather than proactive. Inspired action" means that you're listening to your intuition, rather than on your linear mind. Intuition will come to you in the form of "Ah Ha" and gut instincts. Inspired action will feel good and it will feel right.

6. You may be forgetting to "visualize"

In the Law of Attraction, there is the saying, "whatever you visualize, you will materialize." It may be that in your business, you haven't taken some quiet time to visualize your desired outcome, for example, earning $500,000 a year on a steady basis (or whatever your ideal income is).

When you take time to visualize yourself having the prosperity you desire, then you can create the feelings of having it now. Since like energies attract like energies, whatever you radiate comes back to you multiplied. It pays to visualize.

7. The biggest mistake people make

The biggest mistake that people make with the Law of Attraction is that they fail to do it consistently and effectively.

For example, after watching "The Secret," you may be inspired for a while to wake up focusing on gratitude. Then when the inspiration of the movie wears off, you may get busy and forget to be grateful for what you have. This is an example of an inconsistent use of the Law of Attraction.

Another and more serious mistake people make in implementing the Law of Attraction is that they "wing it." They have no systematic, step-by-step procedure to follow.

To effectively and successfully use the Law of Attraction, use a solid 5 step process:

• Identify what you don't want,

• Identify what you do want,

• Find a feeling place of having what you want,

• Clear your opposing beliefs,

• Take inspired action.

If you follow these 5 steps, perhaps with the help of a mentor or a coach, you will maximize the effectiveness of the Law of Attraction. No longer will the Law of attraction seem like a mystery to you!

Practice these 5 steps consistently, and you will be building a solid foundation for the Law of Attraction to work for you.

It's definitely one of the hottest subjects in Washington right now: Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's agreement last week to totally overhaul their appraisal practices, under pressure from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo had been investigating the two company's standards on appraisals in connection with widespread foreclosure losses on subprime and other mortgages.

New York State filed a suit last November charging that an appraisal unit of First American Corp. illegally caved into pressure from Washington Mutual Bank to raise property valuations to allow loan deals to go through.

Both firms denied the allegations. Some of the loans involved were intended for purchase by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and that opened the door to Cuomo's probe into both companies' practices on appraisal quality.

The new agreement is scheduled to take effect next January 1st. It will immediately affect anywhere from half to 70 percent of all new home mortgages, and is expected eventually to be adopted by much of the mortgage industry.

Here are the key changes:

Number One (and most controversial): Mortgage brokers will be prohibited from selecting appraisers for any loan that is to be sold to Fannie or Freddie. The apparent rationale is that appraisers say brokers too often interfere with -- or try to influence -- their work.

Not surprisingly, brokers are outraged by the change. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers said it is exploring legal remedies to block the plan.

Change Number Two: Lenders no longer will be able to use affiliated or in-house appraisal management companies for valuations on mortgages purchased by Fannie or Freddie. That would be huge for firms like Countrywide Bank, which heavily uses appraisals produced by its in-house LandSafe unit.

Third Big Change: Fannie and Freddie will set aside $24 million to create a new, independent organization to review complaints from appraisers about interference and to monitor nationwide compliance with the new appraisal rules.

Appraisers generally support the new agreement. The Appraisal Institute, the largest professional group for the industry, said it would work to help further the goals of the Fannie-Freddie reforms.

Gary Crabtree, a member of the Institute and an appraiser in Bakersfield, California, told Realty Times that "this is a big deal. The dishonest, inexperienced and unethical appraisers are the ones that received most of the work (during the boom years) because they were willing to sell their souls (to brokers and lenders) for a lousy 250 to 300 dollars."

The new Fannie-Freddie standards, he said, should help drive them out of the business

Again the bad putting more in the way of us good mortgage professional. Again just enforce and go after the voilators to the full extent of the law and this mess will go away for good. Everyone please get with your local NAMB rep to get links to prevent this from happening.