Efficiency is what we need, not onerous BPOL tax.
Businesses and commercial properties are generally assessed at a higher value, resulting in greater real estate taxes. Stafford even has special tax zones where the commercial real estate tax rate is even higher.

Businesses pay property taxes on equipment used, such as desks, computers, fax machines, phones, and tools–taxes that are not imposed on homeowners.

Let”s not forget, there is no car tax relief for a business vehicle; they are taxed at 100 percent value. And don”t forget the tax on a merchant”s inventory.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and frankly they are having a hard time making a go of it these days.

There is no government bailout for small businesses, and the last thing we need now is more taxes.more

TLC PREMIERES NEW PROPERTY SHOWS.
Finally, REAL ESTATE PROS also returns for its second season, taking viewers behind viewers inside the world of Charleston SC”s Trademark Properties for an eye-opening and unapologetic look at the world of real estate. With a modern view on the current real estate landscape, Trademark”s founder Richard C. Davis reveals the true reality of making money in real estate. The five episode season starts July 21.

STAGER INVASION is produced for TLC by Discovery Studios. Executive producer is Jeff Kuntz. MOVING UP is produced for TLC by BBC Worldwide Productions. Executive producers are Allison Wallach and Joe Livecchi. REAL ESTATE PROS is produced for TLC by Discovery Studios. Executive producers are Richard Davis and Ginger Alexander.

About TLC

TLC”s innovative docu-series and reality-based programming include favorites Jon & Kate Plus 8, Little People, Big World, What Not to Wear, 18 Kids and Counting, and LA Ink.more

Man who barricaded himself in house with sons denied bail.
A DAD who set fire to his Dandenong house and barricaded himself in a bedroom with his two young children has been refused bail.

Sadik Sljivo, 33, has pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering the life of the two boys, then aged 2 and 4. Magistrate Peter Couzens said he believed that Sljivo was too great a risk to his ex-partner Sanela Zlojic and their children to be freed on bail. Melbourne Magistrates” Court heard today that Sljivo was living with his estranged partner and their children in the house on December 11 last year. Mr Couzens said Sljivo confronted Ms Zlojic when she returned home. During the confrontation, Sljivo stabbed Ms Zlojic three times with a kitchen knife while professing to love her, Mr Couzens said. She managed to leave the Lilac Avenue home under the pretext of having a cigarette.more

Belvedere: the la-la land of real estate.
Someone bought the Blanding Estate carriage house in 2004 for $7m, for instance, and has now put it up for sale for $14.8m. True, the 1,400 sq ft master suite is bigger than many San Francisco apartments, but a 102% price hike in this economic climate?

As I say, surreal.

Posted By: Tracey Taylor (Email) | June 10 2009 at 09:31 AM

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Richmond, Langley Township are Lower Mainland”s hottest real.
A bucolic chunk of Langley Township is the Lower Mainland”s hottest real-estate neighbourhood, a place where average prices are actually higher now than a year ago, says realty firm Century 21.

The rural utopia of horse paddocks and pastures came out tops in the company”s research on the best-performing areas in the Lower Mainland for real estate prices.

The neighbourhood was one of three that recorded year-over-year price gains in April. The other two were Coal Harbour in Vancouver and a section of Richmond.

Langley Century 21 realtor Sukh Kang said the area”s high performance is ‘probably because of the acreages.’

Acreage properties, homes with some room to move around in, have been moving in the area, Kang said, commanding higher prices than in the past from buyers who can pay a little more for the tranquillity.more

Sunday Real Estate Round-Up, 06/14/09.
We saw it as an estate of the day back in March 2007.–More real estate exuberance at 15 Central Park West. Donald Opatrny, a partner at Goldman Sachs, has listed the 15 Central Park West condo he bought for $11.6 million in January 2008 for $26 million. The listing is here.–Dr. Athanase Lavidas, the chief executive of the Greek pharmaceutical company Lavipharm Group, has re-listed his massive apartment at 2 East 67th Street six months after taking it off the market. It is back on the market for the same $43 million price it was listed for last November.–Beny Alagem, the founder of Packard Bell Electronics and the owner of the Beverly Hills Hilton, has put his 15th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West on the market. The three-bedroom apartment, which Alagem and his wife Adele bought for $15.4 million in April 2008, is listed for $24 million.From the NY Post”s Gimme Shelter:–Billionaire financier John Paulson has finally sold his Southampton, New York home.more

Women in Business: Betsy Echols, Mary Jane Sanford and Cindy Cauthen.
Echols and Sanford, who have been in the real estate business together for 20 years, lead the trio. The three share a service-first at?titude. And they like that as Realtors they can make sure clients get the royal treat?ment.

‘Being self-employed, we can guarantee good custom?er service,’ Cauthen said. ‘We expect to see clients again and again. You can live off referrals and repeat business.’

The new enterprise was welcomed in the growing El?more County community. More than 100 people attend?ed the May 19 ribbon cutting at the office located about a mile east of Wal-Mart on Alabama14, the Realtors said.

The Realty Central own?ers, befitting their name again, live in three different towns — Montgomery, Mill?brook and Wetumpka. All also are working mothers with Sanford and Echols to?gether totaling six grand?children.more

Top Regions For US Real Estate In The First Quarter.
The US real estate market improved in the first quarter of 2009, declining at a slower rate of 3.4%. The region of the country that performed best during this period was the South. Diana Golobay from HousingWire reports on the improving real estate numbers from the first quarter.

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Wide-open spaces in region”s warehouses.
Economists and real estate executives blame a drop-off in port traffic for the slow industrial market. In the past year, container volume at the port of Hampton Roads has fallen 11.4 percent, according to the Virginia Port Authority.

‘The depressed retail market has affected the ports here substantially,’ said Patrick Mumey, first vice president at real estate firm Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield. ‘That”s of course reflected in the lack of absorption of warehouse space in the region. The new products that were built expecting port growth that hasn”t taken place still have a high vacancy.’

Worth Remick, a vice president for CB Richard Ellis, also blames general economic uncertainty among businesses that might normally be expanding.

‘Firms are less likely to pull the trigger, just because of their confidence in the business climate of today,’ he said.more

Lauth Group survival in judge”s hands.
In a June 17 filing, Chicago-based Inland American Real Estate Trust argues Lauth did not have the authority to file bankruptcy for two entities created in 2007 as part of an agreement for Inland to invest up to $250 million in the Indianapolis-based company. Inland claims an entity it controls took over Lauth subsidiaries LIP-D and LIP-I on April 27 after Lauth defaulted on the equity investment agreement for 40 properties in various stages of development.

But Lauth says it is still in control of the entities thanks to a clause requiring approval from at least one Lauth representative and one Inland representative for major company decisions. (Those two subsidiaries, along with a third Lauth entity called Lauth Investment Properties filed for Chapter 11 in early May.)

Inland describes Lauth”s stance as ‘misguided.’

‘To sustain the debtors” position, the court would have to find that the parties intended the Lauth Managers of Holdings to have a never-ending right to block any action against their affiliates regardless of defaults,’ LIP Holdings LLC, which is controlled by Inland, said in the filing.more