Monday, November 24, 2008

Facts and Figures
Companies with Unusual Perks


Chesapeake Energy Corp. – Employees can earn their scuba diving certificates on the company's tab on–site at Chesapeake's Olympic–sized pool.

Amgen Biotechnical Company – This company provides an in–house florist, photo developer and a cafeteria that fixes up family–sized meals to bring home.

Sprint – Sprint buys houses that are available for employee purchase. If an employee buys a Sprint home, Sprint will give them back 2% of the sale price.

Microsoft – As a part of the company's campus expansion, employees are allowed to design their own work stations. For example, the Zune team has a deejay booth in their meeting room.

eBay – Stressful day? eBay's office in San Francisco offers a room filled with yoga mats, pillows, and meditation music so employees can take a break from a hectic day in the office.

Healthways – The company's headquarters provides walking trails, easy–to–locate stairways and bikes for rent to their employees to stay active and exercise.

General Mills – Employees returning from maternity leave are phased back to work on a part–time basis for eight weeks to help ease the transition.

Camden Property Trust – Employees who live in one of the firm's 180 apartment complexes, receive a 20% discount on their rent.

EOG Resources – This company will match their employees' contributions to charities dollar–for–dollar, up to $60,000.

Google – Google employees receive $1,000 towards their purchase of a hybrid or electric car.

by
Lisa Warren
Southlake Branch Manager
Silver Oak Mortgage
Phone: (817) 410-2518
Fax: (817) 410-2519
lwarren@somlp.com
www.silveroakmortgagelp.com

Saturday, November 22, 2008

DATES TO REMEMBER

Holiday Happenings in the area.....

Nov. 14 - Jan. 3 - ICE! and Lone Star Christmas (Grapevine)

Nov. 22 - Jan. 4 - The Trains at North Park (Dallas)

Nov. 28 - Jan. 4 - Holiday in the Park (Six Flags in Arlington)

Saturday, Nov. 22 - 3:00 to 9:00 pm

Home For the Holidays (Southlake Town Square)

Tree lighting at 6:30 pm

Saturday, Nov. 22 - 24 - www.SouthlakeFestivalofTrees.com

Friday, Nov. 28 - FW Sundance Square

2:00 to 5:30 pm - Holiday Fun Zone

6:00 to 8:00 pm - Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting

Nov. 29 - Dec. 21 - Snowflakes, Sugarplums, and SANTA! (Fort Worth)

Saturday, Nov. 29 - 6:00 to 8:00 pm

Hurst Annual Tree Lighting Spectacular

Monday, Dec. 1 - 7:00 pm

Historic downtown Grapevine Carol of Lights

Thursday, Dec. 4 - 7:00 pm

Historic downtown Grapevine Parade of Lights

Friday, Dec. 5 - 6:00 to 9:30 pm

Holly Days at Keller Town Center

Saturday, Dec. 6 - 10:00 am

Neiman Marcus Adolphus Children’s Parade Dallas

Saturday, Dec. 6 - 4:00 to 8:00 pm

NRH Night of Holiday Magic at NRH20 Family Waterpark

Saturday, Dec. 6 - dusk

Twinkle Light Parade on Grapevine Lake

Happy Holidays!!!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Foreclosure Prevention
The two secondary-mortgage-market companies are well aware of the market pain and are taking a number of steps to provide relief, particularly to prevent foreclosures.

Among other things, Freddie Mac is allowing lenders to modify their at-risk loans into 40-year, lower interest-rate mortgages and to reduce borrowers' burdens by permitting them to roll up to six months of missed payments into what amounts to an unsecured second loan. The two companies are also ramping up their staff and adjusting compensation so their internal structure better matches the size and complexity of the processing demand they face.

What’s more, to help facilitate short sales, Lockhart’s agency will be releasing a large-scale, streamlined, standardized process for expediting short sales, which he said will give lenders flexibility and tools like principal forbearance that they can’t easily use right now.

But Lockhart made it clear that the bulk of the problem isn’t with Fannie and Freddie loans, but debt in what the financial services industry calls private-label securities, the Wall Street loans, many of them subprime, that are held by investors all over the world.

The streamlined short sale process his agency will be announcing soon—he didn’t give a time line—could go a long way to focusing the minds of lenders on the problem. But ultimately the problem won’t go way until interest rates come down, buyers start streaming back into the market again, and prices firm up, he suggested.

—Robert Freedman
Realtor Magazine