True there should be an MLS but unlike an MLS it should be freely available and not controlled by a dying monopoly as is the current real estate MLS. Thank the lord for Trulia, Zillow, etc… Sure there price estimation data sucks but at least you can do more research on your own.

One of the most annoying parts of transferring from a home buyer to a renter is there is no MLS equivalent for renting. If there was, I would have gladly paid a broker fee to find the right place, but in Boston (at least) rental brokers are useless. Since the buyer/renter has very little information outside of craigslist postings, you have to let a series of lowlife brokers drag you through the crappiest apartments while they slowly get nicer and nicer in the hope they can unload the bottom of the barrel on you. This, of course, is a small price to pay vs. the losing massive chunks of equity on a house, but humans are not rational and I certainly found myself considering buying a house where the process at least can be far easier.

Nice site. Keep it up.

Everybody outside NY assumes New Yorkers read the NY Times.

They don’t. The Sunday edition is popular, yes, but for everyday reading, you’ll see people reading the Daily News or the Post, or one of the little freebies put out by the very same tabloids, or maybe the WSJ, but rarely the Times. The Times’ market is definitely more upscale, so it’s not so weird that they would write more about owners. And finally, renters aren’t causing a widespread global financial crisis, are they!?

What is it that makes those who work in the courthouse more worthy as human beings than myself? I pay my taxes, I educated myself in Florida colleges, and I suffer devastating health issues just as those courthouse workers do. The only difference is that my mold came in the form of mortgage and disclosure fraud and misrepresentation, perpetuated by the OFR.

I have been victimized not only once by the crooked mortgage broker colluding with the sellers to put me in the contaminated home with a forged signature and altered documents. I didn’t buy more than I could afford, nor did my finances warrant a predatory loan, I’m a veteran of the USAF.

Now I find I am victimized twice in finding that the OFR gave a brokers license to Art Seaborne, the mortgage broker, just 9 years after revoking his real estate license for mortgage fraud, oh and just one year after a chapter 7 bankruptcy… it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see what is going to take place there does it??? (All this information took me years to find, not easily accessible to find out before a closing).

Those of us left with nothing by the mortgage brokers are again ignored and victimized by our Presidents mortgage assistance bill, which completely ignores those in my position who are the real victims of predatory lending and mortgage fraud. So it looks to me like its time the State of Florida stepped-up and took responsibility where it is most definitely due, they licensed the crooks after all.

I have moved from the house, which sits in Sarasota rotting to the ground from water intrusion and toxic black mold, with 2 liens on it for foreclosure. But I still pay each and everyday. I am awakening daily struggling to breathe. I take 2-4 pills each day just to get air in my lungs and go through a box of tissues daily before I can even start my day. It’s like getting a life sentence for a crime someone else committed, and no home to show for it. It is just plain wrong!

My court case has stalled because the sellers and the mortgage broker can afford high priced lawyers who just keep the case going to use up what little money I can make while they use the money they stole from me to fund their criminal activities and representation. This alone is where the States fraud victims fund is owed in assistance to those of us stuck fighting your hired criminals for our inalienable rights. After all OFR, you are supposed to be working through regulations to protect us from this type of crime.

I am a 48-year-old divorced woman who had so much promise for my future. I had planned to go back to UFS for my masters but can barely afford living expenses and a lawyer now.

I know through research that I am not the only one in this situation. That is why the victim’s fund must be brought back and used to assist us in our struggle, after all our funds are now paying for the high priced lawyers your licensed criminals are buying.

I would like the opportunity to address the legislature concerning the victim’s fund. We who are the victims are not just another situation we are human beings, tax-paying citizens who deserve to live and breathe and have our lives back.

Receiving assistance from this fund could very well mean the difference of living a full life or living a lifetime of sickness and financial disability to so many of your victims.

I was fucked out of my money, my home and my health at the fault of the FLORIDA OFFICE OF FINANCIAL REGULATIONS

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