Find Luxury Real Estate in Dubai

The UAE is attracting orbicular attention from business and actual estate investors. The metropolis property market is on steep growth curv and the city has most 75% of the worlds available cranes such is the intensity of construction. Properties move from moderate and affordable to the most extreme wealth homes, apartments and villas.

Dubai is environment the standard for the rest of the world to follow, its a city that has be seen to be truly understood and you can find almost anything in actual estate to meet your requirements, infact your dreams module more often than not exceeded by what this city has to offer.  There is such a intensity of construction and invesment in the area that as a vistor your not going to wager all of it, as an investor you module have volumes of opportunity. Even as a resident your nous is always being turned according to some of locals we have spoken with recently. Where module all of this construction end? They are antiquity more Islands and more broad rise condos so the answer is “how long is a example of string”. The long constituent content is to have an industry & revenue model other than meet oil, with 10’s of millions of visitors every year Dubai is well on track. The discourse is how big and how far can it go? We already have 7 star accomadation, indoor snow skiing and man made palm tree islands! What is next for Dubai?

There are a beatific sort of well respected actual estate agents that can give you current market data on the area, things like acquire costs, rental returns and growth statistics for investors and you can do all of this online. The one thing you can’t do over the internet is intend a true feel for the city and the sound it has created. Treat yourself to a pass in the UAE and you module not be sorry, you module come away with such more than meet a beatific time, you module come home from Dubai in awe. At this point you module want to intend involved.

Amazing Panoramic View of Dubai

Amazing Panoramic View of Dubai

Check out this astonishing panoramic view of Dubai. You can see the Dubai Mall, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai Fountain, Burj Dubai and amazing World Islands.

The mechanics of short sales in real estate

There are not many “ways out”, once you are in a tight spot as a home owner, who’s going through some financial problems and finding it hard to reimburse the debt amount to his/her lender or mortgagee. Most of the times, you are left with no other options but to withdraw from your home ownership, either by means of foreclosure or “short sale”. A short sale occurs when you sell your home (of course with the consent of the lender) to some buyer at a price that’s less than the owed amount of debt. In case of a short sale, lenders keep the money, buyers get the home and the sellers are left with … well, nothing but at least they can save themselves from dishonor and bad credit record that comes with foreclosures or bankruptcy.

Mostly, three major stakeholders are involved in a short sale, namely seller, buyer and lender. Let’s discuss the transaction one by one, from their standpoint.

Seller:
Though seller gets nothing (of a monetary value) out of “short sale”, still he/she is the one who is the most concerned. As a seller, you should keep some points in mind. First, the lender will not always absolve you of the remaining debt. Second, the credit history doesn’t really remain unmarked in case of short sale (though the bad impact is less than the foreclosure). As a seller, you must put forward a very strong case for the bank's loss mitigation department, an application providing valid reasons with documented proofs (especially if you have cited the "decline in property prices" as the reason for short sale).

Lender:
Lender is of the paramount importance in a short sale, buyers and sellers cannot proceed with the deal without the lender’s permission (In case there are more than one lenders involved, consent from both parties will be needed). Mostly lending banks permit sellers to carry on with the short sale to save all the costs and complications attached with foreclosures, but not before going through a thorough checking and verification process.

Buyer:
Homes at short sale notices are typically low-priced (not lesser than foreclosures though). But the biggest drawback in going for a piece of "short sale property" is the amount of time it can take before the deal is finalized, mainly because it's not the seller but lender who'll approve or disapprove the offer. As a buyer, it makes sense to involve a real estate agent, who has previously dealt with short sales. Short sale homes are supposed to be in better condition than the foreclosed ones, but you must hire a home inspector to do the inspection in any case. 

UPDATE: Villa Leopolda

Your Mama has a few things to cover today but we thought we'd start at the tippy-top with the recent real estate reality check wildly rich widow Lily Safra had regarding Villa Leopolda, her behemoth Belle Epoque estate overlooking the Mediterranean Sea on the Cote d'Azure.

In December of 1999, the high priestess of international high society lost her Lebanese banking billionaire huzband Edmund in a fire that raged through their Avenue d'Ostende penthouse in the posh principality of Monaco. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Mister Safra's American nurse Ted Maher was convicted of igniting the blaze and the Brazilian born socialite and perfectly preserved philanthropist became the sole owner of Villa Leopolda.

In addition to its manicured lawns and meticulously maintained gardens that are said to require 50 gardeners be snipping and clipping all day every day, the 50-acre estate includes an ocher colored, 29,000 square foot confectionery colossus with 11 bedrooms and 14 poopers. The expansive grounds also contain numerous out buildings–probably for storing all the rakes and lawnmowers, a commercial sized green house, a swimming pool and pool house, an outdoor kitchen, helipad, and a guest house larger than the mansions of most millionaires. Your Mama sometimes whittles away an hour or two wondering and day-dreaming about the security measures required to defend Villa Leopolda in the unlikely event an unwanted intruder manages to get up on the grounds. Are there 24/7 armed guards? Panic rooms and bomb shelters? Surely there are studio sized vaults for storing valuables, right? And what about a secret tunnel through which residents, guests and illicit lovers can be secreted out unnoticed if the need arises? We know we'd want those things iffin we were the Widda Safra which, of course, we are not.

Ever since the Missus Safra and the late Mister's swank penthouse in Monaco went up in flames, rumors have regularly raced through the international real estate community about the Widda Safra wanting to unload the costly and excessively high maintenance estate. It's probably not that the Widda Safra–herself a billionaire or close to–can't afford to keep the place. But let's get real butter beans, how many damn uber-luxe properties around the world does an empty nesting single senior citizen really need?

Anyhoo, Villa Leopolda, which was once falsely rumored yet widely reported to have been sold to Microsoft multi-billionaire Bill Gates, was once considered to be the world's most expensive estate even though it was never–as far as Your Mama knows–ever on the open market. However, all the uber-wealthy folks and real estate gossips who cares about such trivial things knew the place was available at the right price. In early 2009, the international real estate rumor mill was whispering and reporting that big living Russsian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov had entered into an agreement to buy Villa Leopolda from the Widda Safra for a fever making and stomach churning $750,000,000. That's right puppies, three quarters of a billion bucks. It drives Your Mama right to the loony bin just to think that anyone would be willing to part with that much money for a house they'd likely use, maximum, a few weeks each year.

The deal was all hush-hush, of course, and all parties involved insisted that no deal was being made. Then, as the Widda's luck would have it, the global economy flushed itself down the terlit and Gaspodin Prokhorov, the presumed buyer, backed out of the deal thus forfeiting a titanic $55,000,000 deposit. Naturally, the notoriously lavish living Russian bizness baron wanted his money back but the Widda Safra said, "Nyet." French law states that buyers lose their deposit if they back of of a transaction after the sales agreement has been signed and apparently the sales agreement had been signed because it wasn't long before the Widda Safra sent out a press release–that did not name the buyer–in which she said she was going to donate the forfeited $55,000,000 deposit to a variety of charities. You can do that sort of thing when you're richer than the damn Pope.

The estate was thought to have been removed from the market until mid-November of 2009 when the folks at Forbes put out their annual list of the world's most expensive homes and lo and behold, holding fast as the fourth priciest estate in all the world is Villa Leopolda. The estate is reportedly back on the market–although not the open market–with a dramatically reduced asking price of $102,000,000. That's a staggering, stunning and heart stopping 648 million dollar drop from its highest rumored asking price. Interestingly, the photo included in the tidbit on Forbes is not a photo of Villa Leopolda, but another exceptionally high priced villa in the area that goes by the name Villa Schiffanoia. We're not sure if the folks at Forbes just made a mistake and attached the wrong photograph or if they made an even bigger mistake and mistook the listing for Villa Schiffanoia for that of Villa Leopolda.

If indeed the folks at Forbes got the story right but the picture wrong and Villa Leopolda really is for sale with a $102,000,000 asking price, someone must have sat the well-dressed Widda Safra down and told her that even Russian billionaires, those mega-rich rascals who regularly drop tens of millions of dollars on extravagant estates like they're buying underpants and JC damn Penny, are no longer willing to spend half a billion dollar or more for a vanity real estate purchase such as Villa Leopolda. It remains to be seen if there are any titans, tycoons or potentates still willing to spend a hundred million on a house either. We shall see, we shall see.

The Widda Safra is said to also own homes in Geneva, London and New York City where she shacks up in a posh penthouse at the hallowed 820 Fifth Avenue.

Could you digitize Condominium Documents Please

The Actual Status Certificate contains the current operating budget with existing and future proposed expenditures (spending); Notes about any proposed special assessments and changes in financial status.

Condominium Documents are a standard package that include the Rules and Regulations of the Condominium Corporation; 5- 10 pages. The Condominium ByLaws and the Status Certificate. 20-30 pages. These document could easily be PDF'd or saved to a computer disk CD-Rom for storage and access.

Having the documents on a computer disk would save thousands of dollars in photocopy expenses and fees to reproduce the same material time and time again.

Management companies would save by speeding the process and response time for the delivery of Document bundles to prospective purchasers on behalf of the (shareholders) unit owners. Not to mention the cost of photocopies and processing.

The Builders at the time of marketing the condominium could include the renderings and exteriors, include floorplans as part of their marketing programs. By starting a new trend to save paper time and money, the builder would also set themselves out as eco friendly, something that is timely in Toronto.

Would you as a potential Purchaser take the CD ROM home in addition to your printed material and view it on your home computer? When you have signed the Offer to Purchase there is a standard Offer document that the Builder uses, now inserted with your name and offer details. This is added to the bound copies of the Rules and Regs, plus the proposed documentation of the as yet unbuilt condo corporation. You are leaving the sales office with the same material but in a more convenient fashion.

You now have 10 days (the cooling off period) referred to as Rescission to decide before making your commitment firm.

You, in conjunction with your lawyer, should review these prior to your initial consultation about what is contained in these documents, and you would both be better served. Examine the closing cost proposals, become informed about Phantom Mortgage charges, meter activation charges and green fees.

Electronic document transfers are becoming commonplace, we are actually replacing the fax with emailed documents and their attachments that are forwarded back and forth.

These changes would need to be implemented from the time of marketing to trickle down to the end user effectively but with the number of large condominium corporations operating in Toronto, participation by Tridel, Menkes, Monarch and Pemberton could surely lead the way.

In this day and age, I am confidant to say that many would pay an additional $5 or $10 per transaction for digitized documents, not to mention the time and mileage spend to ferry documents either by courier or agent for convenience and time constraints.

By :  David Pylyp

Common Restrictive Covenants and What They Mean

As a real estate agent in Columbia SC with over a decade of experience in land sales, I have learned how to avoid most of the issues that arise at the closing table prior to making an offer to purchase. When buying land or acreage you need to be informed of what you are getting into and how your property may be used in the future. It is common to have an unforeseen problem arise, but here are a few tips that may get you on the right track and questions to ask your real estate agent.

The first question that you should always ask when purchasing a real estate is “are there restrictive covenants that run with the property”. Restrictive Covenants, commonly referred to as ‘Restrictions’ or ‘Covenants’, and should be discovered in a title search. Always ask for a copy of these when you have decided to make an offer on a property. If you can not collect a copy prior to making your offer to purchase, consider having a contingency written into the offer to review these before you are locked into your purchase. Many contracts have an inspection period, make sure that you are covered in this section. If not, create an addendum requesting a time frame to review them. Restrictions are typically recorded at the county court house and are placed on a property to protect you as a homeowner. I use the word “protect” loosely because sometimes it will prohibit you from creating or maintaining a space that you desire. Common restrictive covenants found in my area are:

Setbacks of “X” feet from road and side lines- this is the area from which your foundation or porches will begin. Make sure that you have a site plan (provided by a surveyor) prior to construction and that your builder is aware of the distance. Usually there are sideline setbacks also. Beware of these when making an addition to your home or pouring your driveway.

No removal of trees that are “X” inches in diameter-I’ve seen people fined heavily for this and job site’s shut down. The intent is to keep mature growth in a neighborhood and preserve historic landscapes. If there are none in your covenants, you may want to check with the city and county too. In Blythewood SC, a landowner cut all of the trees on their property and was fined by the town.

No manufactured or mobile homes- Pretty self-explanatory but there is usually additional conditions that must be considered. Typically the tongue (the trailer hitch), axle, and wheels must be removed and the curtain wall must be installed. A curtain wall is the perimeter of the home below the structure. Masonry is becoming a standard in our area.

No Modular homes - Yes, there is a huge difference between Modular and Manufactured /Mobile Homes. Similarly, Modular homes are built in a controlled environment but are built to conform to traditional site built homes and usually can not tell the difference if you are driving through a neighborhood.

No unlicensed or inoperative vehicles- If you collect ‘hot rods’ or a ‘shade tree mechanic’ beware of this. The intent is to keep junk cars out of your subdivision.

One home per tract- Even on acreage. This may prohibit you from moving family members onto your property or building an in-law apartment.

No subdividing the property- Commonly used when a developer wants to keep large tracts in tact.

Architectural approval review prior to construction- Make sure that you seek out the neighborhood association ARB (Architectural Review Board) before you even think about closing the property. The last thing that you want is a mortgage payment on a home that you don’t love. Again, have a contingency in your offer for your plans to be reviewed.

Domestic animals allowed but not exceed “X” dogs “Y” cats – This very well may become a factor for pet owners. Some pets aren’t welcome into a traditional neighborhood. If you have over 2 pets read into this and make sure you are safe to bring your animals.

No above ground swimming pools- Summer is hot in South Carolina. This may be an issue in the future if you spend time outdoors.

Usually a percentage of landowners, or the developer can amend these restrictions. Most of the time you will find that restrictions renew after a given number of years. Keep in mind that laws change over the years and that the restrictive covenants must follow all local, county, city, state, and federal laws and must NOT violate RESPA laws.

By :  Brian Hunt

Indexing Real Estate Listings: NAR, Google and the agents caught in the middle

Right now, the Internet is being rocked by a heavily-criticized decision by the National Association of Realtors(R) to allow individual boards of Realtors to view Google as a "scraper" site and require that Realtors with a dynamic IDX feed block it from obtaining and publishing information from listings on Realtor.com and NAR affiliated sites. The criticism has caused the NAR to take another look at this decision, with the section 15.2.2 of the MIBOR (Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of REALTORS®) MLS Rules and Regulations revised to state the following: "Participants must protect IDX information from unauthorized uses. This requirement does not prohibit indexing of IDX sites by search engines." However, on the basis of a recommendation to take it back for more consideration, the motion was tabled until NAR meets again in November.

The question of revision of section 15.2.2 of MIBOR's MLS Rules and Regulations brings up the question of how much control are the boards exerting over the distribution of listings and why. After all, much of the information that the NAR is blocking its members' listings from showing can be found on sites such as Trulia.com or Zillow.com. The only people being blocked from showing information are... Realtors. These are the people referenced by the mission statement of the NAR: " The core purpose of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® is to help its members become more profitable and successful." This does not appear to be reflected in the online treatment of NAR members.

Wouldn't allowing listings to be accessed by Google's formidable indexing system be part of helping "members become more profitable and successful"? Since the NAR has the power to change its Rules and Regulations, one would think that they would have changed their R&Rs to reflect the changing nature of the Internet. But no, the NAR Board voted to postpone a judgment that would clarify the entire issue. This has raised questions about whether the NAR is really an organization that is working for the success of their members or one that is using its membership only as income.

To many of the people weighing in on this issue, it seems ridiculous that search engines, Google in particular, are being treated in the same manner as "scraper" sites, sites that steal data, images, and layouts for nefarious purposes of their own. Search engines are there to provide people with relevant Internet results; their collecting of data is done to facilitate this. Since millions of people use Google, blocking real estate data from those interested in such is interpreted as basically shooting the Realtor in the foot. After all, when the average person goes to look at sites on the Internet, they go to Google or another search engine. Given Google's dominance in the search engine arena, one could argue that having Google index their site is a key part of doing business on the Internet.

Whether or not NAR has its members' best interests at heart with this issue, it is certain that Realtors and brokers and other real estate professionals are taking notice of who, exactly, are the haves and the have-nots in the online real estate world. Once the word gets out about this issue, NAR could be faced with some serious questions about its online conduct and its treatment of its members.

By : Matt Barker