Gene Allen Realtor Hampton Roads Real Estate

The Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) for military members is officially accepting applications. There are a lot of military in the Norfolk area who bought homes in the last few years and have orders out of the area. As we know from news reports this can be a disaster for the military person on Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders. Many bought when the price was high and now are forced to sell when the price is low.

I am here to let you know that there is help. The Department of Defense (DOD) has finally come out with the final guidelines for the Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) to eligible service members and federal civilian, including non-appropriated fund, employees. The program is authorized by law, and administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to assist eligible homeowners who face financial loss when selling their primary residence homes in areas where real estate values have declined because of a base closure or realignment announcement.

That program has been modified by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which temporarily expands the HAP to assist service members and DOD employees who are wounded, injured or become ill when deployed, surviving spouses of service members or DOD employees killed or died of wounds while deployed, service member and civilian employees assigned to BRAC 05 organizations, and service members required to permanently relocate during the home mortgage crisis.

If you are in this situation or think you might be in this situation, give me a call. Who knows better how to help the military person than a 21 year veteran.

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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It is never to dark in Virginia Beach to take a picture. I like taking pictures of the sun as it is coming up and in the evenings. This is a picture of a lake on the Honey Bee Golf Course in the Glenwood section of Virginia Beach. Often I get a good sky but the ground is dark. This is mostly because of the limitations of my camera (Panasonic DMC FZ 18). It just can't get all the lightness and darkness in at the same levels. That is where Photo Shop Elements (PE) comes in. What I did was take my shot and then went into PE and increased the the dark levels to where they were more in line with the light levels. Some people think a dark shot is wasted but often there is enough detail that you can bring it up in PE. To me a light shot is wasted because once you blow out a highlight it is gone forever.

http://www.genesellsvirginiabeach.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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The mother of all plug in electrics comes to Norfolk. There aren't many plug in vehicles yet but there are some. Let me tell about one. This one has 1.080 lead acid batteries, 1,500 horsepower, cost $1.3 million dollars and only goes in circles. Norfolk Southern has bought an all electric switching locomotive. The locomotive can go three shifts before needing to be recharged. That should really cut down on local emissions. It is truely an amazing feat if you ask me.

http://www.genesellsvirginiabeach.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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I have done several posts on my camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ18 (newest model is a DMC-FZ38), but not for a while. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a bridge camera. Somewhere between a Point and Shoot and a full fledged DSLR. The lens goes from a 28mm to it seems like a forever over 800 mm. To show you what it can do here are a few pictures.

This is at 28 mm in Virginia Beach at 40th St

This is at full zoom looking down the boadwalk nine blocks away to King Neptune

Look at how well the exposure is with the sun behind the building. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see the church steeple has good exposure also.

Of course it takes awesome closeups (macros). You can see its two eyes and the hair on its legs.

And of course, once in a while I have to do my job and take pictures of houses

geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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SPSA and Portsmouth are in another fee dispute over three facilities it operates in Portsmouth. This dispute dates back to the original agreement from 1983. Portsmouth officials want $1.5 million in service fees that it says they are owed. Of course, SPSA says they don't owe the money and want the courts to decide that matter. Stay tuned as the courts decides the $1.5 million dispute.

geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

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