How to Determine Whether to Refinance Your Mortgage?

Mortgage rates are rising. But there’s still time to refinance your mortgage if you haven’t done so already, according to Dana Anspach, CFP®, RMA®, president and founder of Sensible Money. How might you go about deciding whether to refinance and which mortgage to choose? At Sensible Money, the process starts with establishing your goals. Are you …

Loan Reg Protection is in Place for Reverse Mortgage Borrowers 

Financial considerations are often a focus of marketing campaigns, and those considerations are addressed even more now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as personal economics are taking a hit for many Americans. While most ads today seem to be targeted to the 18-49 demographic, Boomers are the essential target for most ads regarding reverse mortgages as …

EDGE District hotel is dead, but a new proposal has emerged 

Back in October 2018, St. Pete Rising broke the news about an 11-story Marriott Tribute hotel that was to be built in the EDGE District at the corner of 11th Street and 1st Avenue North. The 135-key hotel was proposed by Michigan-based DevMar Development, whose first residential project in St. Pete, Vantage, began move-in’s in …

Homeowner concerned HOA has too much cash reserve

Can a homeowners association have too much cash in reserves? A: Your question is interesting, because we haven’t encountered too many homeowners associations with reserves that are too high. We usually hear about HOAs that have no reserves or too little in the way of cash on hand. When something goes wrong or whenever there …

11 High-Yield REITs to Buy for Big Income

Investors looking to bolster their income portfolios have long looked to dividend-friendly real estate investment trusts (REITs) to get the job done. But recently, the appeal of high-yield REITs has intensified, thanks to changes to conventional investing wisdom. For more than a quarter century, the “4% rule” governed many investors’ withdrawals from retirement savings. According …

Real History by Jeff LaHurd: Sarasota’s early housing developments

These daughters of a wealthy physician were world travelers before Katherine discovered Sarasota in 1903. Miss Daisy and their mother followed a few years later, searching, as had so many others, for the salubrious climate that Sarasota promised. McClellan Park is an early forerunner of today’s modern housing developments. Platted by Katherine Elizabeth McClellan of …