East Manatee County- Golf Course, New Construction, Heritage Harbour, - Homes

The upcoming Memorial Day weekend is more than just a long weekend for relaxing, having BBQ's, and going to the beach, although we SHOULD take time with our families to celebrate the beginning of summer... but it is also a time for reverance, respect, and saying "Thank You" to all the service personnel that protect and serve our country allowing us the luxury of enjoying independence and freedom.

So..... please do not do what we witnessed at a recent community event and display or wave an american flag... with a "Made in China" sticker on it! Really kills the mood, ya know?!

Happy Memorial Day... From The Serena Group!

Come on now.... this is an insult to my, as well as your, intelligence and patience!

SHORT SALE BANKS BLOCKING WAY OUT OF FORECLOSURE CRISIS!

Why are we all (Real Estate professionals) sitting in the bleachers... waiting for the refs (FEDS) to mediate the game (Banking Short Sale & Foreclosure Processes) when it is very clear to see that this game has been fixed!

Wake up and smell the .... (maybe that's not a good idea!) Well at least... WAKE UP!

WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING COLLECTIVELY PEOPLE! Our team has formed a new group on ACTIVE RAIN called: REALTORS FOR SHORT SALE REFORM. We have formed a group by the same name in FACEBOOK, also. In FACEBOOK, in just a couple of days, we have about 115 members. It is our intention to not just shake our heads and throw our hands up in the air over this "broken system" but to use the vast knowledge and resources that our industry (real estate) posses to demand some reform. PLEASE CONSIDER BECOMING PART OF A SOLUTION TO THIS WIDESPREAD PROBLEM!

Wendy Herndon

REALTOR / Office Administrator

The Serena Group

www.TheSerenaGroup.com

Just like a lot of other Real Estate professionals... REALTORS, Title Companies, etc. , we have been trying to do the impossible! To successfully negotiate through the jungle that is known as the banking "short sale process" towards a merciful end for our clients and to produce revenue for our real estate business... not to mention helping to clear the glut of short sales & foreclosures that are choking our Real Estate market and preventing it from stabilizing and becoming healthy again! We can EVEN help the banks get what THEY want.... more money for toxic assets and smaller deficiencies!

The problem is that we are working with a BROKEN BANKING SYSTEM where common sense and logic play no part!

We patiently plod along, with our clients in tow, through the maze of paperwork, the never ending phone calls, difficult negotiations, heart wrenching details.... thinking that we are getting close to accomplishing a win-win situation for all under the most dire of circumstances.... then.... WHAM!... a bank negotiator that we've established a rapport and open line of communication with, (after painstaking patience & diligence on our part) leaves, gets laid off, falls off the face of the earth... WHO KNOWS WHERE THEY GO! No one ever seems to know or care! The file goes into "Short Sale Limbo Land" and is reassigned... to who? They never call with that information!.... the only way to find that out is solve the mystery that becomes..."Short Sale, Short Sale....Who's got the Short Sale File?" ...OR...

We plod along trying to keep a buyer loyal to "THE TRANSACTION FROM HELL" forging through months of empty deadline promises, ignored phone messages, stubborn INVESTORS that say "NO" to a perfectly fair offer (supported by comps & market statistics, I might add!), extensions because of delays that really shouldn't be necessary, and "missing" workout negotiators that get replaced by "mystery" negotiators that don't identify themselves but wait for you to find THEM! The transaction drags on for so long that: the buyer walks, the property owner loses precious time before foreclosure is eminent, AND the banks lose perfectly good deals that most certainly would put more money in their pockets than they will ultimately get with another offer which will clog their systems even more and produce less revenue and cause larger deficiencies! These "toxic" assets then continue to compete with normal home sales and continue to drive down everyone's property values and belabor the recovery period.

Might I add... that most Real Estate deals today are short sales and foreclosures and this "BROKEN BANKING SYSTEM" is preventing us, as REALTORS, from enjoying our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO MAKE A LIVING!

Has the banking industry asked us for our suggestions or put together a panel of experts in the REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY to aid them in fixing their systems? WHY NOT? Is there some advantage to them to continue on with this devastating course of events?

Lots of questions and opinions... but no conclusive answers.

BANKERS...ARE YOU LISTENING?

www.TheSerenaGroup.com

Keller Williams Realty of Manatee Hosting A Blood Drive

For Red Day 2009!

RED stands for Renew, Energize and Donate and is a new initiative from Keller Williams Realty of Manatee to give back to the community. Red Day is Thursday, May 14, 2009 and Keller Williams Realty of Manatee has decided to host a blood drive as a way to give back to the community. The blood drive will be from 9 am – 3 pm at the Keller Williams branch located at 5260 SR 64 in Bradenton.

All lifesaving donors will receive a Free Event T-shirt, a coupon for $5 off MOSI Body Worlds Exhibit and a wellness checkup including a cholesterol screening.

Generally, healthy people, age 16 (with parental permission) or older, who weigh at least 110 pounds

can be blood donors. For further eligibility questions people can call 1-800-68 BLOOD (25663)

or visit www.fbsblood.org

Headquartered in St. Petersburg, FBS currently provides blood and blood components to patients at 61 hospitals and other ambulatory healthcare facilities in 14 Northwest Florida, Southern Alabama and Tampa Bay counties. After a merger is finalized in the new year with Southeastern Community Blood Center in Tallahassee, a combined total of almost 300,000 volunteer donations will be needed annually to serve patients at 84 hospitals in 40 counties.

FOR MORE INFO CALL: Betty Serena @ (941) 928-1249

or visit our website at: www.TheSerenaGroup.com

WHY SHOULD I GIVE BLOOD?

Consumers should expect an even larger increase in these numbers in the months ahead fueled by the homebuyer tax credit that expires on Dec. 1st 2009.

www.TheSerenaGroup.com