The Mortgage Professor: I was scammed! (don't let it happen to you)

I'm taking a break this week from my usual mortgage-related writing to share a cautionary tale.

BUSINESS

Real estate Q&A: Using a drone to market your home? Be sure to follow the rules

Q: We are getting ready to sell our home, and one of our neighbors offered, for a small fee, to take some aerial pictures with his drone. Are there any rules or restrictions we need to know about? – Susan

SPONSORED CONTENT

Miami-Dade Parks’ Learn-to-Swim classes save lives

By Miami Dade Parks and Recreation

The Parks Foundation of Miami-Dade is ensuring underserved kids can access Look around Miami and you’ll find water everywhere. Our beautiful...

BUSINESS

For crane operator, office is high and outside

Johnny Kooker had his share of high-risk and high-adrenaline pursuits – bull rider, surfer, downhill skier – before he came upon another high-wire career.

BUSINESS

Marcie Geffner: 6 reasons to refinance when rates are rising

Rising rates tend to discourage homeowners from refinancing, but there are good reasons to refinance even when rates are going up, and even if refinancing means paying a higher rate than you currently have.

BUSINESS

In San Francisco suburb, $1 million homes and a fiscal emergency

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco suburb of Moraga seems as far as one could get from the financial pressures that have battered big cities like Detroit and Chicago. The price of a typical home has soared to more than $1.2 million, it's not drowning in debt and there are even free summer concerts.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

The builder of Florida’s high-speed train is getting into the apartment business

Florida East Coast industries is launching a new real estate brand, to be called Park-Line, with new apartment towers in West Palm Beach and downtown Miami.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Homebuilder settles with Miami Gardens association for $11 million

D.R. Horton, the largest homebuilder in the U.S., was ordered by a judge to pay $16.3 million to the homeowners association of the Majorca Isles development. The company settled for $11 million.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

That Trump tax overhaul? Don’t hold your breath

Legislation simplifying the tax code — and eroding some real estate tax benefits — is moving at a crawl on Capitol Hill

TRAVEL

Time, immigrants made Montreal cuisine a delicious melting pot

Ola Claesson sat comfortably for a chat off to the side of the busy main dining room at Auberge Saint-Gabriel.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Miami is getting lots of new apartments, but you may not be able to afford them

Apartment rents in Miami-Dade are going up, and experts predict they’re set to go higher, even though developers are building lots of new projects.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Parking on South Beach is expensive. But is a garage really worth $283 million?

German institutional investor BVK bought the property from owner/developer Robert S. Wennett.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Did Miami’s biggest developer avoid labor taxes? The feds are investigating.

A federal investigation is examining whether subcontractors hired by the Related Group’s affordable-housing division avoided paying employment taxes to lower labor costs.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

The Bookstore in the Grove was going to close. Instead, it got a renovation

The beloved Coconut Grove book shop, at 3390 Mary St., was going to close its doors in June. Instead, it is staying open and getting a makeover by its new owner, real estate developer LointerHome.

BUSINESS

The Mortgage Professor: Manufactured housing: A new role for Fannie and Freddie?

It has been more than 10 years since I last looked at the market for manufactured housing, my excuse being that nothing much had happened that justified another look. But now something has happened: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are planning to support the market for chattel loans on manufactured housing. The agencies are being pushed to do this by their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA, in compliance with their "duty to serve" requirement under the Safety and Soundness Act.

BUSINESS

Real estate Q&A: Appliances must stay with the home, unless specifically excluded by seller

Q: We are in the process of buying a home and did the day-before-closing walk-through, only to find that the property is missing the appliances. The fridge, stove, washer, dryer and dishwasher are gone. We do not want to buy the house this way. Is there anything we can do?

BUSINESS

On the House: When selling a home, must you disclose its unsavory past?

Events that transpired in Westfield, N.J., three years ago might sound a lot like the plot of a horror film.

BUSINESS

Does a snarky architecture blog have the right to scrawl all over Zillow listings?

The real estate website Zillow is the place you go to search for a home – and maybe marvel at high-end listings.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Lousy credit? Know that ‘credit repair’ services are often scammers

Two new legal settlements from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — involving more than $2 million in penalties against credit repair companies — offer mortgage applicants sobering reminders about what to avoid if you feel you need help with your credit.