Dan Rosenberger

With recent severe weather, this might be a good time to do something now that could be a critical time saver in a future emergency. The National Weather Service has numerous weather radio stations around the country. Many people have weather radios to tune in and keep track of severe weather information. But those weather radio streams are also available online. You can listen live on a computer or smart cell phone. (Try it out.)

When you find the right station for your area, please bookmark it so that you can find it quickly and easily in the future. Here is a list of stations and their links:

http://www.weather.gov/nwr/streamaudio.htm#livestream

If you are in the Indianapolis-Carmel Indiana area, the local National Weather Service station is KEC74. You can listen online or on a smart phone with Internet capabilities at the following link.

http://wildcatweather.home.comcast.net/~wildcatweather/radio.htm

Taking a few minutes now to find and bookmark the appropriate station for your area might be valuable minutes saved getting quick accurate information in a future emergency.

Do it now!! Remember to bookmark this link both on your computer and your smart phone. Thank you.

For information about real estate in the very affordable Indianapolis-Carmel Indiana area, be sure to contact me or visit my website about Carmel Indiana real estate.

A few days ago I talked to a representative from NAR who informed me that there are no current cell phone providers who have a discount arrangement for NAR members. So I have done some digging and come up with some very interesting news that might save you a few hundred dollars per year.

To recap an earlier post, I did find that my local board had a discount arrangement with Sprint for 10% of the monthly bill. In the comments an agent in California told me that agents in her area could get a discount of 7% on AT&T.

In talking to some other people here is more information I have discovered:

If you have an account with a credit union, you should be eligible for a discount of 10% on most plans with Sprint. It does not include the basic plans or unlimited plans, but it does include most other plans. In addition, activation fees are waived for credit union members. Information about this is at cusaver.com or check with your credit union. If you are not a credit union member, there is probably one that you can join.

If you are a current or retired union member, there is a discount available from AT&T of 15%, including iPhone plans. For information about this discount go to unionplus.org/ATT

If you are getting a new phone or new or extended plan, some frequent flyer programs offer frequent flyer miles for doing so through their website. An example of Continental's OnePass program. For information about their program you can go to onepasswireless.com You can check with your favorite airline to see if you can earn frequent flyer miles with a cellular provider.

We heard of at least one university that has a discount up to 23% for students and faculty members. If you have family members who are students or who work for a university, it might really pay to find out if there is a discount program available.

Various companies have special discounts with cellular providers. Many providers have a place where you can enter your work e-mail address. They will then let you know if there is a discount associated with that workplace. Or check with the HR Department to see what is available. Even though NAR does not have a discount contract, don't overlook your state association or the company where you or a family member works.

If you want a discount to apply to a current plan, be warned: they might require you to extend your current contract when they apply the discount. In that event, make sure you time your discount with any planned upgrades in phones or plans.

There are probably discounts you are missing where you already qualify or could easily qualify. It's worth doing a little bit of research to find out what you might be able to save. It could be hundreds of dollar per year.

For homes in Central Indiana, there are plenty of great homes available waiting for a qualified buyer. With interest rates still at relatively low levels, this could be the right time to be looking for that special home. To help you navigate Indianapolis - Carmel Indiana real estate, visit my website or contact me directly.

So now hudhomestore.com has been with us for a few months and it looks like some of the bugs are starting to get worked out. When HMBI had the M&M responsibilities for HUD Homes in Indiana, there were at most about 700 HUD Homes available at any one time in the state. Now there are about twice that number with over 1300 Indiana HUD Homes currently available.

There was a glitch early on about bidding deadlines. But they appear to have that worked out.

Here are a few cautions to remember when using this site to locate a HUD Home in Indiana. You enter your search criteria. And then it gives you results - ten at a time. So right now if you were to search on the entire state, you would get 10 results by default, page 1 of 133. But you can have it display 20 results at a time.

So the logical thing to do is to narrow down the search. If you search by county it willl display all of the results in that county - well maybe most of the results in that county. There are several homes where the county field is left blank. For example, if you search on a HUD Home in Avon, Indiana, you will 13 matches. But only one of those HUD Homes shows being located in Hendricks County. 12 of them leave the county blank.

There are a few mis-spellings of Indianapolis. So if you spell it correctly you will show 302 matches, but leave out a handful where Indianapolis is mis-spelled and it will leave out the one listing where the city is listed as Speedway. So if you are looking for a HUD Home in Indianapolis, watch out. And if you are looking for a HUD Home in Noblesville Indiana, there is one listed as Nobelsville that you might miss.

If you are looking for a home in Fort Wayne, you will find 79 listings. But if you are looking for a home in Ft Wayne, there will be 7 listings. Hmmm.

We try to take the mystery out of buying a HUD Home in Indiana. If you are looking for a HUD Home in the Indianapolis-Carmel Indiana area, we can get you a list of HUD Homes sorted in zip code order. So that makes it easier to narrow down, even if the name of the city is misspelled or the county information is missing.

Call me on my direct number 317-709-2537 for information about Indianapolis HUD Homes, or you can visit my website about Carmel Indiana real estate. Now is a great time to be looking at HUD Homes when the supply of HUD Homes is plentiful and many buyers have checked out of the buying process for the winter.

The Indiana Supreme Court website has added a Mortgage Foreclosure Best Practices document. While these are not final guidelines, they do indicate that the plaintiff in a foreclosure action should be in possession of the original promissory note, or in the case of a lost note, be able to prove terms and the plaintiff's right to enforce.

In addition, the guidelines encourage a settlement conference between the parties. If one of the parties fails to appear at a scheduled settlement conference, there could be sanctions. An example was shown of sanctions between $150 - $2,500 against a plaintiff who failed to attend a settlement conference or refused to provide requested documents.

Courts around the country are responding to the robo-signing Repogate revelations that became prominent during 2010. Often the process of one court system becomes the prototype for another court's procedures. During 2011, it would not be surprising for legislatures and courts to tighten up foreclosure procedures across the country.

Here is the link to Indiana's Mortgage Foreclosure Best Practices document. It is recommended that any homeowner facing foreclosure consult with an attorney and/or the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network (1-877-GET-HOPE) to best understand their alternatives.

This post is by Dan Rosenberger, with the Real Estate Finders Team at Harvest Realty. I am not an attorney and nothing here should be considered legal advice. For Indianapolis-Carmel area residents who would like to consider buying or selling a home via short sale, you can contact me on my direct number at 317-709-2537.

There are many who are concerned that we will be experiencing increased rates of inflation - maybe even high rates of inflation. The price of gold has gone way up over the past couple of years. But for those who are convinced that inflation is coming soon - maybe it would be good to consider quality residential rental real estate as an investment. Here are some points to consider:

1. Only consider real estate in quality areas that has positive cash flow. While that may be a challenge in some areas, it should not be too hard to find in my area (Indianapolis - Carmel Indiana.)
2. With some significant numbers of people being locked out of home ownership for a period of years, there should be an adequate pool of renters.
3. Even if there is no inflation, residential real estate in quality areas with good cash flow could still be an excellent investment. If the fear of inflation subsides, precious metals could see their prices tumble.
4. Part of the mortgage payment each month goes to reduce principal. If holding rental real estate for the long term, it can eventually be paid off free and clear.
5. If there is inflation, it might be possible to pay down the mortgage balance with inflated dollars.
6. Gold does not pay interest. Rental property has constant return on investment. (Of course there is no mowing to do with gold.)
7. Deflated currency in a bank account may have lost a significant portion of its value. Investment real estate will have some value as determined by supply and demand.

Don't get me wrong. I am NOT in favor of inflation. The purpose of this article is to discuss the idea that residential rental real estate might be something to consider - for those seeking an investment that can act somewhat as a hedge against inflation.

For information about Indianapolis - Carmel Indiana real estate investment, visit my website or contact me on my direct number, 317-709-2537