Luxury Clues

A Crisis of Conscience

Frances Flynn Thorsen in an article that appeared on RealTown, has raised an issue that almost no one in the real estate industry has addressed. In our rush to become foreclosure experts and to close more short sales, we have neglected the most important role that we could play in resolving the heartbreaking tragedy of this situation--assisting homeowners in restoring their hope and providing them with a path to staying in their homes.

Fran knows what it's like to go through foreclosure. She was the victim of a predatory lending scheme, like many other homeowners in this country. When a family loses their home, children are often removed from the school they are attending, friendships are destroyed, and shame results. The family's credit is ruined which can result in even more serious problems if a family member becomes ill or faces any other type of drain on their finances.

As an industry, we have an obligation to help clean up this mess. Realtors are among the most generous people on the planet. We band together to build houses for Habitat, we assist disaster victims, and we give back to our communities on a regular basis.

What we can do now is get the word out that help is out there for troubled homeowners. Acorn.org is a non-profit organization that assists troubled homeowners in staying in their homes. Their success rate is 60 percent.

HopeNow, a consortium of lending institutions who are assisting troubled borrowers before they lose their property, reports a 67 percent success rate.

On March 6, 2008, the White House announced a new USA Freedom Corps Financial Literacy Initiative that seeks volunteers to counsel those who are facing issues connected with the subprime crisis. This new online resource helps to connect individuals with expertise in financial and housing services with volunteer opportunities designed to assist homeowners avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes.

If the lender is not being cooperative, there are several other strategies the homeowner can use. First, the homeowner needs to bypass the collections department. These people lack the authority to make modifications to loans. Instead, have them call the main number for the lender and ask for the "workout department."

Often times with big lenders, it's hard to get to the right person. Many local banks are stepping in and assisting borrowers in their communities with new financing.

A third option is to work with a consumer advocate attorney. Don't rely on a regular real estate attorney for this job. Often times there are errors in the loan documents that will give the borrower much needed leverage in negotiating a workout. You can locate a consumer advocate attorney at www.NACA.net. NACA also just announced a $6.5 Million in Legal-Aid Grants to Help Families Caught in the Foreclosure Crisis to keep their homes. They are have additional initiatives to assist consumers who believe that they are victims of predatory lending practices.

I can't imagine a more important call to action for our industry--it's time that we band together to help families across the country to save their homes.

Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com

If you're tired of all the bad news about today's real estate market, you can do something about it! Visit www.RealEstateCoach.com and click on "Positive News for Positive Realtors" to hear the good news about today's real estate market.   

Photo by JoeBehrDenver

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

This fully automated luxury home has 2 marble staircases, elevator, and 12 seat theater.

Listing Provided by Point2Homes

An Absolutely Amazing Look into the Future: Morph From Nokia—Unlike Any Cell Phone You Could Possibly Imagine

Our good friend Nils Leuhrmann sent us an email about an amazing new cell phone called Morph. Nanotechnology is the wave of the future and what it will create will be nothing short of miraculous. I'm including the entire text of his email since he has researched this so thoroughly. If you have QuickTime on your computer, it's worth clicking through to see the movie. It takes a long time to download, so be patient. It is well worth the wait!  Here's what Nils had to say:

I was watching a taping of a light-weight, but entertaining tech show called "Attack of the Show" on G4  (merged with TechTV) and during it they showed clips from a video demonstration of a new conceptual communication device from Nokia simply called "Morph".

It was so fascinating, I immediately started doing some research on this incredibly intriguing device.

First of all, I tracked down the entire video, which you can see for yourself by clicking HERE (it's a .mov file so you'll need QuickTime).  You can also download it by right-clicking on the link and save to your HD.

As seen in the video, it is an demonstration of how current and future nanotechnologies might be used in future mobile communication devices.

Some of the things you'll see in the video are;

Size
A visual example of how it will be possible to have as much as 10,000 individual transistors in an area equivalent to a single hair on a fly.

Sensing
Using nanotechnology to analyze individual molecules in the air for any number of purposes like;

The ability to evaluate the quality and freshness of food by analyzing the airborne molecular discharge from the food. Let's say you are allergic to onions, and you want to be sure the soup or sauce that's on your food has no onions in it.  All you would have to do is to set your device to alert you to any onion based compounds in the air, and move the device over your food.  It would not only tell you if any trace of onion is in your food, but also how much.

The Ability to evaluate the quality of the air, and alert you to any dangers, including viruses.

Now let's say you have allergies to specific molds, pollens, hairs, etc.  Using a device like the Morph, you would be able to set the device to alert you to the presence of these compounds, and exactly how much is present.

Imagine the ability to be alerted to the presence of the flu virus and other airborne diseases.

Nanoscale Grass
Less than one square centimeter of Nanowire grass would be able to harvest more than enough solar energy to power a device like the Morph, and store excess power for several hours.

Self-Cleaning
Having a super hydrophobic surface makes it repellent to most things, even water.

Stretchable
Nanoscale structure allows for the product to physically stretch, while at the same time, the nanoscale mesh of fibers can be used to control the amount of stretching as well as allow the product to be folded in specific manors.

Transparent Electronics
Nanoscale electronics can be made so small that they become invisible to the human eye.

Haptic Surface
3D surface buttons that are context dependent.

Wearable Device
The ability to wrap around your wrist like a watch, and even customize the "skin" to match any thing you want it to.

From what I have read, the concept was co-developed by Nokia Research Center and the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre and is the first byproduct to come from their collaborative research work, which began nearly a year ago today.

Here is a link to the official press release regarding Morph:

February 25, 2008 Nokia and University of Cambridge launch the Morph - a nanotechnology concept device

As mentioned in the press release, this Morph concept is currently part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, which began last weekend and runs through May 12, 2008.

If you can't make the exhibition in person, MOMA has an online version of the exhibition that you can explore HERE.

You can also read more about this technology HERE on Nokia's site.  You can also download some of the interesting conceptual drawings of the device by clicking HERE for a list of available images.

Here are some of the direct download links:

Morph Open Mode

Morph Open Operating

Morph Phone Mode

Morph Wrist Mode

Also, speaking of really cool tech demos from Nokia, if this interests you, may I suggest you look over some of their other demos available HERE.

 

While the technology described and conceptualized in the "Morph" is many years away from ever being released in a consumer product, it's still fascinating to me, and encouraging that a company like Nokia is clearly committed to taking these emerging technologies seriously and looking for ways to implement them into future product lines.

Thanks Nils!

Posted by Bernice Ross