Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label questions. Show all posts
on 27 May 2013

I never bought a foreclosure. I pay my mortgage faithfully. Now, is someone going to tell me a back-office clerk mishandled my title and their actions threaten my legitimate ownership? Will this mess hurt me when I try to sell my home?

That's exceedingly unlikely. Chaos would ensue if the millions of solvent homeowners who purchased their home - or refinanced their mortgage - in recent years had their ownership thrown into question. Even if investigators conclude that land titles have systemically been registered improperly as the associated mortgages were carved up into mortgage-backed securities and sold to investors, government would be compelled to avert such chaos by legislating a fix to the system.

And then there's the less-theoretical assurance provided by title insurance. Lenders require all borrowers to pay for a policy at closing. This protects the lender if there is a ownership claim against the title. (That's commonly called a "cloud" on the title.) Borrowers can choose to pay extra to have that coverage extend to them as well. Title insurers promise to pay legal expenses to defend a title - or to compensate owners if they lose such a challenge.

So, does that mean the foreclosure problem doesn't affect me at all?

It may not affect you directly, but the fallout could. If nearby foreclosures remain empty longer, or if buyers avoid bidding on foreclosures, your home value could deteriorate. Condominium-unit owners could face higher dues and special assessments if foreclosed units are not bought by dues-paying new owners. Existing condo owners also could have trouble selling their units because lenders refuse new mortgages at complexes that already have too many defaults.

More broadly, a prolonged halt to foreclosures could further damage the economy and the financial system, delaying the day when economic recovery gains real traction.

My bank says it is going to foreclose on my home. Is there any way to determine whether my documents were mishandled - and keep my home?

You need the advice of a lawyer who is expert on the foreclosure laws in your state. However, you can at least examine all the documents related to your home purchase and mortgage, dating from your loan closing to default and foreclosure notices, to look for errors and discrepancies. Are details such as account numbers, loan amounts, payment amounts, addresses and legal jurisdictions correct? Bring any errors to the attention of your lawer, who can advise you whether they will help you challenge the foreclosure.

I'm planning to buy a home. Will the foreclosure problem complicate things?


View the original article here

on 7 Apr 2013
Mark Zuckerberg

I still don't know what to think about Facebook. I should probably have a better answer than that. After all, we're supposed to go to an event for a couple hours, play with some new stuff -- in this case Facebook Home and the "Facebook phone," aka the HTC First -- and have all the answers, complete with video, slideshow and a couple thousand words telling everyone why what we just saw is the greatest thing since the last greatest thing, or how it'll fail harder than the last time someone went off the reservation.

But that's business as usual. And I don't think what we saw last week at Facebook HQ is business as usual. 

Let's start with Facebook Home. The most basic explanation is that it's a companion launcher to go along with the traditional Facebook application, turning your home screen into a sort of uber-Facebook reader, brining your friends to you ahead of the application. It's very nicely designed. Looks great, and it's easy to use. Yes, you'll need to be really into Facebook to use this. But, again, that's who it's for.

It'll be interesting to see how much confusion comes from Facebook Home on the existing cadre of phones that can run it. (That's the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 and the Note 3, as well as the HTC One X and One X+, and the new HTC One.) Setting a new launcher to be the default home action is gonna freak people out. They'll probably get used to it easily enough, but there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve there.

(On the other hand, look at SwiftKey, another popular downloadable application. It's got a fairly complex setup process, and it's doing just fine.)

Facebook has clarified that Facebook Home -- the launcher -- will be a separate download from the application. That's a pretty big barrier to installation, but it's the right move. If you don't want to use Facebook Home, you don't have to.

Peter Chou and the HTC First

The HTC First is actually pretty intriguing. The tech press is falling all over itself because it's a "stock Android" phone. That is, Facebook Home runs on top of a pretty unadulterated build of Android 4.1. So if you turn off Facebook Home, you're back to a Nexus-like experience. And we're all required, by law, to love the stock Android experience. 

But what's more is that this phone gives us, the tech press, everything we've been clamoring for in other phones. It's not too big at 4.3 inches. It's got a microSD card -- never mind that there's nothing "stock Android" about that anymore. It's only got 1GB of RAM and is running on the Snapdragon 400 processor -- today's latest and greatest is on the Snapdragon 600 -- which Qualcomm itself bills for "entry level" phones.

I think that's a pretty long way to go (or stoop?) for a "stock Android" experience with LTE -- while giving up other great features like HTC's camera work, or Samsung's gazillion other bells and whistles. But I think that shows just how much folks have been clamoring for an unskinned phone that's not too big and has LTE. In the world of trade-offs, perhaps the HTC First has the fewest?

I'm real curious to see how the battery life holds up. It's got an embedded 2,000 mAh battery, which isn't going to win any awards for capacity. (Remember that when folks start complaining about battery life.)

I wouldn't trade down from the Nexus 4 to the HTC First just for a "stock" experience. There are cheaper and easier ways to do it. And if you're thinking that "stock Android" on the HTC First means quicker OS updates, remember that there's still a carrier (AT&T) standing between you and a "Pure Google" experience.

It's also kind of important to remember that the HTC First is meant to be a "Facebook experience" phone, for Facebook Home and the immersed users. That's not us.

I keep thinking about AT&T's role in all this. AT&T, after all, was the only U.S. operator to (briefly) carry the first "Facebook phone," the HTC ChaCha. Chances are what we're seeing this week is a continuation of whatever plan was set in motion months and years ago.

I wrote last week about how I think it may be a mistake (I'm not 100 percent sure about that though) for HTC to have its branding on the HTC First at the same time as HTC One is coming to market. Interestingly, it's "Facebook Home" that gets top billing on AT&T's website right now -- it just happens to run on the HTC First. Scroll down a bit and you'll find mention that HTC One's also up for preorder. 

Goes to show that "latest and greatest" isn't always the same as "most important."

Facebook Home coming to current devices

Speaking of AT&T, something else just hit me about that list of current devices that'll be able to run Facebook Home. Looking back at the slide from Thursday's presentation, not only are those all devices with a minimum 720p resolution display -- those are all on AT&T. Sure, the Samsung devices are on every other carrier, too. But here's one glaring question: Will Facebook Home not work on the Verizon Droid DNA? I bet it will. But with AT&T the prime U.S. partner for the HTC First, it wouldn't do to have another carrier's branding on the screen, would it? Inside baseball is fun.

If I left the Facebook event wanting anything, it's proper unification of ... well, everything, I think. The fact is very few of us only use one app, or one ecosystem to do everything. We use Gmail. POP-based e-mail. SMS. MMS. Skype. Facebook. Google+. Instant messaging of various protocols. It's a mess. 

Facebook's "chat heads" are cute and interesting, but if you've got a bunch of people pinging you at once could get pretty annoying. Or if your friends change their profile pics (still need to make sure the chat heads pull from profile pics) for the cause du jour. Or, worse, cats.

What I really want? Read/unread status synced across devices for Google IMs, so I don't have to see the same message 13 times. Because it's all about me.

As much as I like the idea of Facebook Home -- and I really do think it's a nicely designed launcher and lead-in to the traditional Facebook application -- there are many here among us (and a number of "normal" smartphone users I've talked to as well since the announcement) who simply don't want to dive headfirst off Facebook's springboard into Facebook's pool wearing Facebook's swim trunks while Facebook keeps a watchful eye from the lifeguard's chair. But the alternative remains pretty messy. 

Facebook, AT&T and HTC might well have done something unseen in the Android world. We got the announcement of a new device, with pricing and the availability date -- all at the same time. And we get it all in a mere eight days.

Everyone else take note: This is how it's done.

So, yeah. There's still plenty to talk about -- and plenty left to experience -- in regards to the Facebook phone, and Facebook Home. I can't wait to spend some quality time with it, actually.

Plus, the HTC One's finally up for preorder. And the Galaxy S4's on its way, too. (Been singing that tune for far too long; it'll be good to finally get devices in to hands.)

Plus, Google I/O is a little more than a month away.

I dare someone to tell me it's a boring time in the Android world.

Don't take portals personally. (Unless you're at least L7.) Sure, you might have submitted it. It might be close by. But it ain't "yours" unless you can hold it.


View the original article here

Popular post

Labels

About (28) Actress (3) Addicts (1) Adjust (8) adsense (2) adult (1) Suzuki (1) Swift (2) swimwear (5) Switzerland (1) Tablets (1) TMobile (1) Trailer (18) Train (1) Twitter (3) Tyler (2) UNITED (10) united bank limited (1) vehicle (2) Western (2) Windows (11) Working (1) worlds (1) young (6) YouTube (7) youtube music (2) youtube.com (1) YouTubes (1)