The bad news? People still need jobs and are facing difficult decisions in terms of keeping or letting go of property.

The good news?  Job creation is happening. Foreclosure isn’t your only option. Summa can help.

Last week, Llosa took on “tanking” mortgage loan rates. According to a recent Freddie Mac survey, 30-year fixed loans averaged 4.42 percent, with an average of 0.7 point. That’s the ninth consecutive week of record-low rates reported in the survey!

So, what could this mean for your property or your clients’ properties? Summa specialists can tell you what your home is worth, discuss your mortgage loans or refinancing options. Let us help!

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook creator, says he thinks the phone service, as we know it, could be gone as soon as 5 years from now. And it could be Mr. Zuckerberg, himself, who is the cause of the telephone’s extinction.

The article says social networking offers better control, freedom and more interactive experience than phone calls. Gmail Voice and Skype have already begun to change the world of voice/face-to-face calling.

This year, NCHS did a survey of 21,000 households; a quarter only use cell phones in their homes. So, we want to know what you think…are landlines like dinosaurs? Too big and bulky, too slow to evolve? Can the telephone last past the social media revolution of today?

It was almost exactly one year ago to the day that Twitter first announced their intentions to enter the location space. At the time, this simply meant that the API would start supporting longitude and latitude coordinates attached to tweets which third-party developers could expose if they chose to. Now, obviously, twitter.com has this element baked in, as does Twitter for iPhone (the app which Twitter purchased that has long had the geotagging feature). But this is still just a layer of meta data, there is no explicit way to “check-in” as it were.

Of course, you could argue that Twitter doesn’t need any kind of check-in functionality because geotagged tweets are essentially that. The problem right now is that on the mobile app side of things, Twitter isn’t doing a good enough job to tie tweets to specific venues rather than just coordinates. They’re working on this — thanks to a deal with Localeze (which Facebook is also using), Twitter has a pretty robustplaces database that you can see on both twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com. But it’s not where it needs to be yet.

And so many people who are using geolocation on Twitter are stuck simply tagging (or “checking-in to”) a set of coordinates. (Even Buzz gets this right.)

It’s the tie-in with actual places that right now appears to be the real future of monetizing geotagging actions in this space. Foursquare obviously knows that, and you have the presume Facebook does too. Even more so than location-based coupons, customer loyalty programs make a lot of sense for businesses and the place-based check-in is the way (at least for now) to make that happen.

Given the check-in hype, it shouldn’t be surprising that people are working on building check-in layers on top of Twitter. Thanks to their nice geolocation API, Twitter can take in check-in data from services like Foursquare and Gowalla and tie it in. As Facebook ramps up, Twitter is the service that’s the go-to location platform aggregating these check-ins. But again, what about a more direct way to check-in on top of Twitter?

That’s what Firefly is all about. Their tagline says it all: The Twitter Check-in Service. While it soft-launched at our TechCrunch Disrupt event in May, they finally have their iPhone app ready to go and up to speed. With it, you simply sign in with your Twitter account and you can start checking-in to nearby venues.

You can also see where your Twitter friends are based on their Firefly check-ins or based on their latest geotagged tweets. That’s a nice touch. And you can filter location to the city, neighborhood, or “nearest” level.

Obviously, when you check-in through Firefly, the check-in is tweeted out — again, that’s the point of the service: a check-in service on top of Twitter. But what’s nice is that they’ve added a layer to make it more than just about checking-in — it’s also about pictures.

Before you check-in anywhere, Firefly asks if you’d like to attach a picture to the check-in. It seems that the service is well aware that plenty of Twitter users get annoyed when people push their check-ins to Twitter from other services. And since that’s all Firefly was supposed to be, they added this picture element to give users something more interesting. (Though you can still check-in without attaching a picture.)

Overall, it’s a very nice execution of check-ins on top of Twitter. But as I stated above, the big question is: will Twitter get into this game themselves? While up until now they’ve said they don’t intend to, you shouldn’t put it past them — especially given Facebook’s recent moves. But I suspect for now that they’ll keep doing what they’re currently doing while at the same time expanding the functionality of geotagging tweets. For example, I’m sure actual places are going to play a more key role in tweets in the future.

You can check out Firefly here in the App Store. It’s a free download.

Information provided by CrunchBase

Whether you choose to sell your property, refinance or negotiate a loan modification, Summa’s experienced negotiators can guide you through each step. Working directly with the lender, Summa will help you minimize loss.

Here are some links we like for more information:

• We’re loving this article from Market Watch. Great Q&A from an experience real estate journalist.
• Want more answers about the short sale process? Check out this great online community.
• Interested in loan modification? This article can tell you a little more.

Want to know more about your options? Or, are you interested in purchasing a short sale? After you check out the links above, be sure to visit the Summa 139 Short Sale Page and then contact a Summa agent for a free, personal consultation.

We handle each negotiation discretely and quickly, so you can get back to what’s most important: protecting your credit, your home, and your family.

You’ll find everything from short sale information to the latest real estate news in your area. We know the market can be rocky; that’s why Summa agents are working hard to keep home owners and sellers up to speed and to continue already successful relationships with local banks and lenders.

Have questions about property management? Facing the difficult prospect of foreclosure? Summa agents have more than 20 years experience in the Portland area, handling all types of real estate negotiations with discretion and expertise.

For a free consultation, contact a Summa agent today.

And be sure to check the Summa 139 blog for your daily dose of market news!