LowellDeeds

Proposed legislation on assignments

2012-01-27T10:03:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I traveled to the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds in Dedham for a meeting of the Legislative Committee of the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Association. The main topic of discussion was companion bills filed by State Senator John F. Keenan of the Norfolk and Plymouth District and by Representative Michael D. Brady of the 9th Plymouth District. Both bills, neither of which has been assigned a bill number, contain the following language:

SECTION 1: Section 6D of Chapter 183 of the Massachusetts General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following paragraph:

Each assignment of mortgage secured by residential property, as defined in said Section 1 on Chapter 255E, shall be forwarded within 30 days of the date of execution of said assignment to the appropriate registry district for recording.

Of the many problems with the mortgage industry uncovered during this most recent collapse of the housing sector, one of the most frustrating for homeowners was the inability to quickly and reliably connect with the entity holding each homeowner's mortgage. The intent of this bill, as I understand it, is to increase the likelihood that mortgage assignments will be recorded in a timely manner which will thereby permit homeowners to ascertain the party holding their mortgage at any given time.

There certainly is a need for this type of reform, so hopefully this bill or some like measure will be quickly enacted by the legislature.

Flags at half-staff today

2012-01-27T09:49:00.002-05:00

All state and federal flags on government buildings in Massachusetts are to be flown at half-staff today in honor of Army Specialist Keith D. Benson of Norwood who died in Afghanistan on January 18, 2012.

iNature

2012-01-26T08:47:00.009-05:00

I recently saw a National Geographic article showing several new species recently found in the rain forests of South America. I couldn't stop looking at the pictures of these remarkable creatures. My obsession puzzled me. What is it about them that is so magnetic to me? I speculated...For the past ten years or so, I have absorbed myself in "things" related to digital advancements and perhaps I have shut out and forgotten Nature's many known and yet to be discovered wonders.

Click picture to enlarge.

PAC Man Frog

Turnip Tailed Gecko

Spectacular Conehead Katydid

Glittery Water Beetle

Cowboy Frog

Housing and the State of the Union

2012-01-25T13:03:00.000-05:00

In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama addressed housing and mortgages. This section of the speech in particular caught my attention:

There’s never been a better time to build, especially since the construction industry was one of the hardest hit when the housing bubble burst. Of course, construction workers weren’t the only ones who were hurt. So were millions of innocent Americans who’ve seen their home values decline. And while government can’t fix the problem on its own, responsible homeowners shouldn’t have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief.

And that’s why I’m sending this Congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage, by refinancing at historically low rates. (Applause.) No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks. A small fee on the largest financial institutions will ensure that it won’t add to the deficit and will give those banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust. (Applause.)

I assume this "let every responsible homeowner" refinance thing means the government will somehow insure the amount by which new loans exceed the existing equity in the home, otherwise the millions of up-to-date homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages will never have an opportunity to refinance, at least not anytime soon. Since such a program if enacted would create a substantial (and quite welcome) uptick in business here at the registry, we'll be watching its progress in Congress very closely.

A Win is a Win, or is It?

2012-01-24T09:47:00.004-05:00

When I was a kid I was a huge Patriots fan...notice I didn't say "New England" Patriots fan because in those days they were the "Boston" Patriots. I can even remember when the franchise started. I remember my father taking me to see the Pats play the Houston Oilers at Fenway Park back in 1964. And I remember the San Diego Chargers crushing them in the American Football League Championship game back in 1066 (the same year William the Conqueror invaded England)...these are old memories.

Today I enjoy the Patriots tremendously and never miss a game, so I'm still a fan, just not a "huge" fan anymore. Why am I telling you this?... because I feel a need to explain my reaction to last Sunday's Patriots victory.

So here goes...

Like many, many others in the area, I watched the Patriots/Raven AFC Championship game. I thought it was a great game, filled with excitement. But, I didn't think either team played particularly well. The climatic moment came with a field goal separating the teams. Raven's kicker Billy Cundiff ran on to the field for what appeared to be a routine chip-shot that would send the game into overtime...

When Cundiff's kick was in mid-air, I yelled to my wife, "he hooked it"...and then my next words were "I feel bad for that guy". I didn't yell "he missed it, the Patriots win". My wife just looked at me. "I mean it. I feel bad for him", I said again. I am little embarrassed to admit this was my reaction, but it was.

I leaned back on the couch and wondered...hey, Tony you're a Patriots fan. Why do you feel bad for Cundiff when the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl? What's the matter with you?

I continued to ponder my unusual reaction and then it hit me. I know why I didn't scream and yell "Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl". I didn't because I thought this game "should" have gone into overtime. Neither team played poorly, but neither team deserved to win either. Sorry, but that was how I felt. Of course, I wanted the Patriots to win, but I didn't feel like they had earned it at that point...but neither had the Ravens.

I know, I know...all that matters is which team finished with the most points...but truthfully, some victories are sweeter than others... and to me this was a lemon.

Still seeking accountability for housing bubble

2012-01-23T12:16:00.005-05:00

A story in the Business Section of the Globe detailed the quest of Eileen Foster, a Massachusetts-based former VP at Countrywide to recover judgment for what she alleges was her wrongful termination in retaliation for her internal complaints about Countrywide's lending practices. Reading the story revived all the memories of shaky borrowers, fictitious financials, and loan originators who were paid based on the size of the loan and interest rate with the likelihood of repayment not even part of the equation. I still found it astounding that no one has been held accountable for all of these practices. It seems that the only time attention refocuses in this direction is when the odd, isolated case like the above bubbles up into the public eye. The New York Times said as much last week in an editorial based on the ongoing prosecution of a single mortgage broker from Queens named Adul Ahmad. As the Times observed,

Whatever Mr. Ahmad did or did not do, one thing is sure: he did not act alone. The attention Mr. Ahmad has drawn highlights the relative lack of scrutiny of the big banks and their senior executives. Big banks created demand and provided credit for dubious mortgage loans, which they bundled into securities and sold to investors. If not for reckless lending and heedless securitizing, there would have been no mortgage bubble and no mortgage bust — and, in all probability, no Edul Ahmad

At the end of the editorial, the Times speculates that lawsuits of the type recently brought by Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley "may ultimately prove more revealing and helpful to wronged homeowners" than anything done or being done by the Feds. Still, it's now more than four years since the collapse occurred and that's a long time to wait for some resolution.

.

Homesteads and an uncooperative spouse

2012-01-20T10:49:00.000-05:00

Someone recently asked a question (which I paraphrase below) about the new homestead law:

I noticed that the new Declaration of Homestead law requires both spouses to execute the document. What happens in a case where the spouses aren't getting along and one spouse refuses to sign the form. Does this mean the other spouse is precluded from obtaining a homestead?

I don't believe the law addresses this scenario, but laws can't cover every possible set of facts so often the answer to a question like this must await an appellate court decision on each unique issue that arises. That works well for everyone except the guy who has to be the first to litigate the issue.

Absent such a court decision, here's how I would analyze the question posed: Section 5 of Chapter 188 (the Homestead law) would apply. While section 5(a)(3) specifically states that where the property is jointly owned by a married couple, the homestead "shall be executed by both spouses." But section 5(a) says it shall be signed "by each owner to be benefitted by the homestead." If one spouse is not interested in obtaining a homestead, it would make no sense to prohibit the other from doing so just because of the recalcitrant spouse. And I assume the empahsis on both spouses signing is because that's the exact opposite of the case under the prior version of the homestead law which only allowed one spouse to sign.

If I was an attorney advising a client in this situation (which I most definitely am not - this is just speculation) I would say to fill out the homestead in his own name, make a note somewhere on it that the property is co-owned by SPOUSE but that she refuses to sign and he wishes to obtain a homestead on his interest in the property then I would record that. But, if such a homestead were ever challenged, it would signal the start of a lengthy period of litigation over the issue

Deeds and Homestead releases

2012-01-19T10:46:00.001-05:00

We're starting to see some documents come across the recording counter containing the caption "Affidavit Related to Homestead Pursuant to MGL c. 188, s.13" which states:

Section 13. A deed, release or mortgage containing a statement of the marital status of a grantor may be relied upon by a good faith purchaser for value. As to acts undertaken in good faith reliance on such deed, release or mortgage, an affidavit executed and acknowledged by the grantor, releaser or mortgagor under penalty of perjury stating that, at the time of delivery of the deed, release or mortgage, the affiant had no spouse then entitled to claim the benefit of an existing estate of homestead, shall be conclusive proof of the nonexistence of such benefit at that time. The affidavit may be recorded in connection with the execution and delivery of a deed, release or mortgage and shall be accepted in the appropriate registry of deeds and registry district of the land court. The subsequent residency or renewal of residency in the home by a spouse of the grantor, releaser or mortgagor shall not defeat the priority of a mortgage, release or conveyance accepted in reliance on such affidavit.

As I understand it, simply by living in the home, a non-titled spouse, possesses a homestead estate in the property that cannot be defeated by the title-holding spouse. Let me illustrate: Husband holds title in his own name with wife using the property as her personal residence. Simply by reason of (1) her status as spouse and (2) her occupancy of the home, she automatically has an estate of homestead in the property under the automatic homestead provisions of the 2011 law. This means that should the husband convey the property to a third party, that conveyance does not defeat the wife's homestead rights. In fact, her right to occupy and use the home would be superior to that of the new owner.

To protect against this, deeds to property owned by just one spouse should also be signed by the non-titled spouse in order to release those homestead rights. But how does anyone know whether a sole owner of property has a non-titled spouse? That's the purpose of this affidavit. Here's an example of one that involved not a spouse-seller, but an executor of an estate/seller:

I, Mary Jones, execturix of the estate of Jane Doe, do under oath depose and say that at the time of the Decedent's death, she had no spouse entitled to claim the benefit of the existing estate of homestead in and to the property located at 360 Gorham Street, Lowell. Executed under the penalties of perjury this 7th day of January 2012.

The above cited-statute certainly allows for this kind of affidavit and makes it legally effective. One problem, however, is the added cost for the $75 recording fee. It's too bad that the revised homestead law, intended to help consumers, now imposes on some an additional charge of $75 to sell their homes. It would be better if the legislature, the legal community, and the registers of deeds all agreed to have this additional affidavit embedded in the deed itself and to not charge an additional fee for it. That would deal with the title issue while not imposing an additional cost on home sellers.

Protesting SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-18T08:55:00.001-05:00

Today's the day that many major sites on the internet go dark in protest of two pending bills in Congress: The House's "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) and the Senate's "Protect Intellectual Property Act" (PIPA). This article in the Washington Post briefly lays out the dispute. According to the Post, this struggle pits Hollywood and the recording industry, both of which seek to curb online piracy of copyrighted works, against the largest technology companies such as Wikipedia, Google and Twitter which assert the proposed bills will stifle innovation on the internet.

We don't plan to have www.lowelldeeds.com or www.masslandrecords.com go black today, at least not in protest, but these bills do bear close watching. The internet has become a vital part of so much of our lives these days, that it would be a shame to regress just to protect the financial interests of those who failed to keep up with rapidly changing technology.

Advanced Recycling in Lowell

2012-01-17T09:47:00.001-05:00

Several years ago the city of Lowell changed its trash pickup procedures. Formerly, almost whatever you put out at the curb in whatever quantity was picked up, no questions asked. The new system restricts residences to a single large city-issue barrel (officially called you "cart" because of its wheels) but there's an unlimited amount of recycling of paper, plastics, cans and bottles. But we often have other stuff that needs to be disposed of but is precluded from inclusion in the cart because of its nature (i.e., electronic devices). Up until now, city residents could call a special number and arrange a curbside pickup providing a credit card number was first given to pay the nominal-to-moderate pick-up fee.

Now, a new outfit called Northeast Material Handling Inc has opened at 38 Prince Avenue (the old Prince Spaghetti plant near the intersection of Gorham and Moore Streets) that accepts drop offs on the second Saturday of each month between the hours of 8 am and noon. They charge nominal fees for most items. For example:

Appliances - $7 each - stoves, refrigerators, microwaves, etc
Televisions - $.35 per lb
Electronics - $3 - PCs, laptops, radios, speakers, copiers
Plastic & Metal - $8 - swing sets, patio furniture, lawn mowers, snow blowers
Misc items - $3 - phones, coffee makers, batteries, dehumidifiers, light fixtures, etc
Books, paper and cardboard - all free

If you're like me and your garage and basement have piles of no-longer-used stuff that you have difficulty getting rid of, this might be for you. And it's my understanding that the service is not limited to Lowell residents.

Mid-January recording statistics

2012-01-13T15:40:00.001-05:00

It's only January 13, but since the 15th falls on a Sunday, the documents recorded right now are all that we'll have for the first half of the month. Comparing the first 15 days of January 2012 with the first 15 days of January 2011 unfortunately doesn't present much cause for optimism. (From here on in this post, when I write "2012" or "2011" I'm referring to the first 15 days of January in each of those years).

The number of deeds recorded dropped 19%, from 169 in 2011 to 137 in 2012;
The number of mortgages recorded dropped 27%, from 609 in 2011 to 446 in 2012;
The number of orders of notice dropped 21%, from 14 in 2011 to 11 in 2012; and
The number of foreclosure deeds rose 80%, from 10 in 2011 to 18 in 2012.

The distribution of those foreclosure deeds is as follows: 9 in Lowell, 3 each in Billerica and Chelmsford, 2 in Westford and 1 in Dracut. As much as these stats trend negatively, it's just a small sampling so I'd be hesitant to draw any inferences. Still, this is something that we'll watch closely as the month draws to a close.

Coakley & O'Brien respond to WSJ editorial

2012-01-12T09:02:00.004-05:00

Last week the Wall Street Journal published an editorial (portion only available on WSJ website) deeply critical of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley's lawsuit against some major national lenders for alleged improprieties arising out the housing crisis and its aftermath. My blog post about that editorial can be found here.

Recently the Journal published letters to the editor in response from Attorney General Coakley and from Essex South Register of Deeds John O'Brien. Coakley wrote, in part,

. . . If the banks wanted to resolve this crisis in a timely manner, they had 14 months to do so. Instead, they dragged out negotiations and attempted to obtain broad liability releases for seemingly every imaginable illegal conduct. Last month we declared "enough was enough" and filed a lawsuit seeking the one thing the banks have resisted at every stage—real accountability for their actions and real relief for homeowners. . . .

While O'Brien added

. . . The real pain for homeowners is the havoc that these lenders have wreaked on the chains of title and property rights . . . I have been fighting for the "little guy" and I am very happy that the Massachusetts's AG has chosen to do the same.

Both letters are available in full on the Journal's webpage. Please check them out.

UMass Lowell puts Cultural Resources Inventory online

2012-01-11T15:24:00.002-05:00

If you're interested in the history of Greater Lowell, you will be delighted to learn that the University of Massachusetts Lowell has just made the multi-volumed "Cultural Resources Inventory" and "The Lowell Neighborhoods: An Historical and Architectural Overview" freely available online. These documents are part of the larger Paul Tsongas Congressional Collection that is held by the UML Library.

I was fortunate to have found a copy of the Cultural Resources Inventory here at the registry of deeds when I arrived back in 1995. It's been of great utility when assisting customers in researching some of the most historically significant properties in Lowell. Now all of that material is available online. For example, here is the article about St Peter's Church which was located across the street from the courthouse but was torn down 15 years ago.

All of these records can be accessed via this link: http://digitalscholarship.uml.edu/surveys/

Please check it out.

Electronic Recording in 2011

2012-01-10T10:47:00.001-05:00

We commenced electronic recording of documents at Middlesex North back in 2005 and the number of documents submitted that way has increased continuously each year since. Here's a glimpse at the growth of electronic recording, showing the number of documents recorded electronically each year since 2005 and the percentage of overall recordings represented by electronically filed documents:

2005 - 1057 efiles - 1% of all documents
2006 - 1871 efiles - 3% of all documents
2007 - 3491 efiles - 5% of all documents
2008 - 3956 efiles - 7% of all documents
2009 - 8168 efiles - 12% of all documents
2010 - 9013 efiles - 14% of all documents
2011 - 14736 efiles - 25% of all documents

Here's the breakdown by document type of our 2011 electronic recordings:

Discharges - 5889 total - average of 24 per day
Deeds - 819 total - average of 3 per day
Mortgages - 3871 total - average of 16 per day
Other - 4117 total - average of 17 per day
Total efiles - 14,736 - average 60 efiles per day
Total documents - 59,173 - average of 241 total documents per day

New Probate Law Delayed

2012-01-09T13:17:00.002-05:00

The new Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code, which was scheduled to take effect on January 2, 2012, had its effective date pushed back 90 days by a bill that was signed by Governor Patrick on December 30, 2011. The new effective date is March 31, 2012 according to this directive from the Probate and Family Court.

The amended law - whenever it may take effect - should have a significant impact on registries of deeds and land records. Now, when a beneficiary of a will or an estate takes real estate directly from the decedent, the executor or administrator will create a Deed of Distribution that will be recorded at the Registry of Deeds. Previously, the only evidence of such a transference of title of real estate could be found in the probate records themselves. Nowhere at the deeds registry would there be an indication of a change of ownership.

Once this new law is in effect and those who practice in this area work out its details through their everyday experience, we will probably find that this new law is a positive development.

Wall Street Journal on Mass AG Lawsuit

2012-01-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

I don't subscribe to the Wall Street Journal in either paper or electronic form, but early this past Tuesday, my home delivery person inadvertently (I think) dropped a copy of that day's WSJ along with the Globe. Flipping through the pages, I was surprised to come upon an editorial on the lawsuit recently filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley against a number of national banks for alleged improprieties arising out of the housing crash and its aftermath. Not surprisingly, the piece takes a dim view of the suit (although you can only see the first couple of paragraphs if you're not a logged-in subscriber). The paper cites Coakley's 2010 Senate loss and suggests this effort is merely an attempt to capitalize on anti-bank sentiment for public relations purposes. The editorial focuses primarily on the MERS and robo-signer issues and says the former has already been validated by courts around the country and the latter is being corrected internally by these lenders.

I've previously gone on record stating I find nothing wrong with the organization and concept of MERS (although it, like every other lender, should not be permitted to cut corners without being penalized) and the issue of robo-signers, while improper, is a lot more complex than many want to believe given the reach of agency law. Where the Journal completely misses the mark is the whole untimely assignment issue which flows from last January's SJC decision in Ibanez. That case, in reiterating the law of Massachusetts for more than 300 years, made it clear that before a foreclosure could be commenced, the foreclosing party had to own the mortgage, otherwise the foreclosure would be void. Because that seemingly self-evident proposition had been eroded away not by legislative or judicial acts but by persistently sloppy practices by national lenders, what should have been a footnote came as an devastating blow to the vitality of any quick recovery of our housing sector. Notwithstanding the Wall Street Journal's belittling of the issues raised in the AG's lawsuit, the fact remains that many of those who have purchased previously foreclosed properties no longer own those homes right now and the process of rectifying that will be long and expensive. We have to start fixing this problems somewhere and it seems that a lawsuit is an appropriate place to begin.

David Pogue's List of Techie "Stuff"

2012-01-05T09:11:00.003-05:00

Every December New York Times' Columnist David Pogue lists his favorite technology devices for the year. I like techie "stuff" and my birthday is not that far off (only seven months, fourteen days, seven hours). Below I've described a fewof the things on Pogue's list, any of which would be a nice gift for someone like me.

Stay N' Store: This is a small 16 gig flash drive that costs only $25.00. The important word here is small. Stay N' Store is so small it is designed to remain plugged into your computer ALL the time. I could use it to expand my current computer's memory (of course, I wouldn't need Stay N' Store if I got a new computer for my birthday).

SoundRacer: I drive a Jeep Wrangler and I love it, but it is not very stylish. For just $32 SoundRacer could solved this problem for me. You see if I had SoundRacer all I would have to do is plug it into the Jeep's DC outlet and I've got an instant Ferrari, almost. Once connected SoundRacer simulates the sounds of acceleration, shifting and braking of a souped up sports car.

iCookbook: A mere $5...You should've seen the face of my iPad after all my holiday cooking...covered with smudges of butter, morsels of dough, sticky sticky sticky, all from swiping through pages of my favorite recipes. I love my iPad too much to treat it like a napkin. iCookbook would allow me to turn pages using volume commands so I can keep my pasty fat fingers off the screen. BTW, I've decided this thing is so cheap, that even if I don't get it for a birthday present in seven months, fourteen days and seven hours, I'm going to kick out the five bucks myself and get it anyway.

Turbomount: And speaking of tablet computers...I love mine, but I hate that I have to hold it with one hand and control it with the other. No, I'm not asking for more hands for a gift...rather for about $100 Turbomount system solves the problem, providing two adjustable arms that'll hold my tablet for me.

And here is my absolute favorite...

Audio Bulbs: $300, yes a little pricey, but...Audio Bulbs are wild! Can you imagine a light blub that's a speaker too? A wireless transmitter sends sound from an iPod, iPad, or CD player to, don't laugh, a light bulb. No, I'm not kidding...If I had an audio blub, I'd replace my living room "100 watter" with one and read my latest book (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72) while listening to Warren Zevon belt out Werewolves of London...from the lamp shade. I just gotta have one of these.

Winter arrives

2012-01-04T10:59:00.002-05:00

This morning's temperature of 8 degrees before calculating wind chill reminded us all that notwithstanding the unseasonably warm weather we've been enjoying, it is winter. In reviewing last year's blog posts recently, I noted how many days our operations were curtailed last January and February by heavy snow. With that in mind, I thought I'd review our normal practice in the event of a snowstorm.

Since we are located within a courthouse, access is controlled by Trial Court security. If the Trial Court decides the building should close early or not open in the morning, then we mirror that closing since we would be unable to let members of the public into the building. There is not one set place to obtain that type of information. It's best to check with the media and, as soon as I get the news, I post it here, so this blog is a good resource.

Short of the building being closed, we try to stay open during our normal business hours but sometimes employee safety dictates closing early. Often we send the bulk of the staff home early and keep a few volunteers on hand for a bit longer. A couple of years we did that, however, and the snow got so deep by the time we left that the only way any of us got out of the parking lot was by flagging down a passing snowplow and slipping the driver $20 for him to clear a path to our cars. After that experience, I became a little quicker on making the decision to close.

Hopefully this will all be a theoretical discussion and any snow we receive will be more nuisance than major impediment. After all, snow has already accounted for (indirectly, at least) two days of closure in the aftermath of the Halloween storm. But just in case, remember to check the blog when it snows.

2011 Recording Statistics

2012-01-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

With 2011 now at an end, we can look at recording statistics for the year and compare them to the numbers from 2010.

The total number of documents recorded in 2011 was down 6% from the number in 2010, sliding from 63,122 in 2010 to 59,563 in 2011;

The number of deeds recorded was down 4%, going from 5390 in 2010 to 5158 in 2011;

The number of mortgages was down 14%, going from 13,675 in 2010 to 11,818 in 2011;

The number of orders of notice was down 37%, dropping from 1143 in 2010 to 720 in 2011;

The number of foreclosure deeds was down 27%, dropping from 1143 to 720.

The 59,563 documents recorded in 2011 was the lowest annual total since 2008 when only 56,011 were recorded. The previous low occurred in 1991 with 52,019. The peak of recording came in 2003 when we handled 146,956 documents.

December recording stats

2011-12-31T12:58:00.001-05:00

A special Saturday edition bringing you the December recording stats:

The number of deeds recorded in December 2011 dropped 1% compared to December 2010, from 497 to 494

The number of mortgages recorded in Dec 2011 dropped 17% compared to Dec 2010, from 1623 to 1343

The number of foreclosure deeds recorded in Dec 2011 rose 200% compared to Dec 2010, climbing from 13 to 39

The number of orders of notice recorded in Dec 2011 dropped 2% compared to Dec 2010, from 44 to 43

The total number of documents recorded in Dec 2011 dropped 7% compared to Dec 2010, from 6386 to 5946

Top Ten Registry Events of 2011

2011-12-30T13:29:00.001-05:00

Here are my choices of the Top Ten Registry of Deeds events of 2011:

After years of discussion, study and testing, the "new" version of MassLandRecords.com becomes the default search application for registry of deeds records on the internet.
In two far-reaching decisions on mortgage foreclosures, Ibanez v. US Bank in January and Bevilacqua v Rodriguez in October, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a foreclosure commenced prior to the the entity conducting the foreclosure being assigned the mortgage is void, even as against a subsequent purchaser of the property.
Adverse weather repeatedly had a negative impact on registry operations. Snow forced the closure or curtailment of operations on six days in January and February; Hurricane Irene interrupted electricity and partially flooded the basement in August; and the Halloween snowstorm knocked out power and closed the office for two days in early November.
The new MassLandRecords put all grantor and grantee indexes from 1629 to the present on the registry website.
A major revision to Massachusetts Homestead Law went into effect on March 16.
Attorney General Martha Coakley sued five national lenders for, among other things, failing to modify mortgages in good faith, failing to record required assignments of mortgages and foreclosing on properties when not legally entitled to do so.
Essex South Register of Deeds John O'Brien gained national attention with his efforts against MERS and robo-signers.
The new elevator in the Superior Court was completed and went into operation.
The Lowell-based movie "The Fighter" which had scenes filmed in the Superior Courthouse, won Academy Awards and Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale) and actress (Melissa Leo).
The Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup.

Happy New Year. See you in 2012.

File Print Server

2011-12-29T09:59:00.003-05:00

On four separate occasions over the past six weeks we've had a problem with our networked printers, simply put...the printers stop working. I want to emphasize this problem has caused no inconvenience for the public. Why? mainly because the fix is quick and easy. When the problem occurs we immediately call the Secretary of State's IT Department and either they or we boot the "file/print server". But the simplicity of the fix does not make the problem any less serious.

The first time we experienced the problem the SEC IT Department speculated that the memory in "print server" was full (booting empties the cache). Even though the problem has reoccurred three addition times since this hypothesis, memory over-load may still actually be the problem...but why? Why is the memory filling?, determining this is complex.

This morning our printers shut down again...This time a diagnosis of the server revealed a possible IP address conflict. Our MIS Director immediately resolved that issue.

I want to reiterate, this problem has not caused any interruption in our operation or inconvenience for users. I'll continue to keep you current on the issue.

Top Ten events of past years

2011-12-28T09:45:00.000-05:00

Every December I publish a list of the Top Ten events at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds for that year. The 2011 list will be done this Friday, December 30. In the meantime, I've listed below the Number One item from Top Ten lists of years past, with links to each year's full list:

2010: Electronic recording continues to become a major point of entry into the registry for new documents. From January to June, electronic recordings constituted 15% of our average daily recordings; from July to December, electronic recordings accounted for 23% of our daily recordings.

2009: The state’s financial crisis caused mid-year cuts and a reduced budget for FY10, curbing our ability to implement new technology and registry-related applications.

2008: The Paperless Registry – On April 1, 2008, we closed off the Lower Record Hall to public access and thereby made all record books and indexes available only on our computer system.

2007: On August 20, 2007, we fully implemented our “scan and return” operation. From that day forward, all recorded documents were scanned at the time of recording and immediately returned to the customer.

2006: To reduce the risk of identity theft, registry employees redacted thousands of social security numbers from previously recorded documents.

2005: Electronic Recording became a daily event during 2005 with nearly 1,000 documents recorded in this manner. There are many details that must still be resolved, but the technology has proven to be useful and reliable.

Biometric Password

2011-12-27T09:17:00.004-05:00

The newest new thing coming to computers and smart phones is biometric passwords.

What is biometrics?
"Biometrics is the science of measuring physical properties of living beings (bromba.com)".

What is biometric recognition?
"By measuring an individual's suitable behavioral and biological characteristics in a recognition inquiry and comparing these data with the biometric reference data which had been stored during a learning procedure, the identity of a specific user is determined." (bromba.com

What is a biometric Password?
"Authentication may take advantage of biometrics by using a biometric characteristic as identifier or as verifier. When using biometrics as an identifier, uniqueness (very low FAR) is an essential requirement especially for large user numbers. When using biometrics as a verifier, the biometric characteristic may be either viewed as a secret or as public. In the latter case, it is essential that a fake detection is provided against mechanical copies of the biometric characteristic." (bromba.com)

OK,OK enough of this high-falutin, scientific language...here is a video from the New York Times describing biometric passwords.

Registry Holiday Schedule

2011-12-23T09:57:00.000-05:00

With Christmas only two days away, I thought now might be a good time to look at our short term holiday schedule and how all legal holidays play out on the 2012 calendar. By state law, when a holiday falls on a Sunday, as Christmas and New Years do this year, the "legal holiday" is observed on Monday. That means the registry of deeds and all other government buildings will be closed on Monday, December 26, 2011 and on Tuesday, January 2, 2012. (When the holiday falls on a Saturday, it is observed on Saturday only as was the case last year for Christmas and New Years).

Besides New Years, the days we will be closed in 2012 for holidays are as follows:

January 16 - Monday - Martin Luther King Day
February 20 - Monday - Presidents' Day
April 16 - Monday - Patriots' Day
May 28 - Monday - Memorial Day
July 4 - Wednesday - Independence Day
September 3 - Monday - Labor Day
October 8 - Monday - Columbus Day
November 12 - Monday - Veterans' Day (celebrated on Sunday, Nov 11)
November 22 - Thursday - Thanksgiving
December 25 - Tuesday - Christmas

Please note that because 2012 is a leap year, Christmas and New Years both jump two days in the week, so while they fall on Sundays this year and would normally fall on Mondays next year, they actually are on Tuesdays.

These are the only days on which the registry is scheduled to be closed. The registry may close in the event of weather emergencies such as major snowstorms. There is no hard and fast rule as to when that might happen, but it is decided on a case by case basis. The best way to find out the registry's status is to consult with this blog.

Holiday Traditions

2011-12-22T09:27:00.015-05:00

Did you ever wonder why certain traditions and customs became associated with Christmas? I did. Below I have listed a few traditions and their origins:

Stockings: According to legend the tradition of putting presents in stocking began in the 12th Century by French nuns. The nuns would go around to the homes of poor people and leave old stockings filled with fruits and nuts.

Gifting Giving: In Roman times gifts were given on New Years Day. Interestedly, today Italians still do not exchange gifts on December 25...rather Italians exchange gifts on January 6, the day the Wise Men arrived in Jerusalem.

Christmas Trees: The tradition of the Christmas Tree began in Germany in the 1500's. One source actually states that Martin Luther was the first person to decorate a fir tree as part of the holiday.

Christmas Cards: Sir Henry Cole, a government worker in England in the 1840's was looking for a way to make more people use the postal service. Cole and his friend, John Horsley designed the first Christmas Cards and sold them for 1 shilling each.

Candy Canes: Again a tradition that originated in Germany...legend has it that a choirmaster passed out sugar-sticks made in the shape of a Shepard's "cane" to children during the concerts to keep them quiet.

Mistletoe: The custom of kissing under Mistletoe began in Norway. In Norway a piece of mistletoe hanging in a house is a sign of love and friendship. This tradition evolved into the kissing custom.

Boxing Day: Boxing Day is celebrated in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It started almost 1000 years ago. Today Boxing Day is a big shopping day in these countries, but originally it was the day the churches opened their collection "boxes" and distributed the contents to the poor.

Santa Claus (modern day): The image of Santa as we knew him...a rotund, jolly man in a red suit with a white beard comes from a Coca-Cola advertising campaign in the 1930's.

Five Excellent Techie Info Sites (and a Bonus)

2011-12-20T10:34:00.004-05:00

I enjoy reading about technology...and fortunately, there are a number of terrific sources of information for the technology oriented. Below I have listed five of my "many" favorites:

AllThingsDigital: Is owned by the Wall Street Journal. This is a powerhouse of information. When you visit you'll find news, opinion and commentary on, well "all things digital".

CNet: One of my absolute favorite information websites. CNet focuses much attention on digital consumer items (that's why I like it so much). In addition to the website CNet publishes a blog and podcasts.

Gizmodo: According to Technorati, Gizmodo is in the top five visited websites in the world. It offering information about cool electronic gadgets... and uncool ones too.

PCWorld: Maybe the most commonly known techie website providing product reviews, pricing information and just plain interesting article about digital stuff.

Techcrunch: This is one high powered and popular technology websites out there. Techcrunch ventures into a beyond range of digital and Internet topics should as social networking.

Bonus Site...Bonus Site...Bonus Site...Bonus Site...Bonus Site...Bonus

OK... I said I was only going to list my five favorite sites, but I must mention one more. It IS my favorite source of technology information...

Wired: To begin, Wired has has an incredible iPad App...the site is colorful, informative and innovative. Wired uniquely blends technology issues with societal and cultural issues, making for some interesting reading.

SEC sues 6 former Fannie and Freddie executives

2011-12-19T16:13:00.003-05:00

Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had filed civil lawsuits against six former executives of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The allegations, according to this story are mostly that the executives greatly understated the level of risk involved in the mortgages being sold to investors. For instance, one of the defendants once gave a major speech asserting that Fannie Mae had "virtually no" subprime mortgages. The problem was that Fannie was using its own definition of subprime not the one the rest of us understood. To Fannie, "subprime" was a function of the lender, not the borrower. Any loan made by a Wall Street firm, for instance, was deemed a "prime" loan, no matter what the credit score of the borrower.

The only thing I find shocking about this is the fact that the SEC has taken some action at this point, more than three years after the financial collapse. You would have thought that an event that nearly destroyed the western world's financial system would have had some culpable folks, but to date, hardly any have been held accountable. Perhaps this suit signals a change in that, but I doubt it.

Mid-month recording stats

2011-12-16T15:19:00.002-05:00

With December half over, I thought a quick look at recording statistics to date would be worthwhile, so I've compared recordings during December 1 to 15 in both 2010 and in 2011. Interestingly, the number of deeds and orders of notice recorded were nearly identical during the two periods. For those two weeks in 2010, there were 231 deeds recorded; for the same time in 2011, there were 233. In those two weeks in 2010, there were 28 orders of notice; the exact same number were recorded in 2011. It was a different story with the other two document types we follow. Mortgages were down considerably, falling from 856 in the first half of December 2010 to 630 for the same days in 2011, a drop of 26%. And foreclosure deeds were way up, jumping from 7 in 2010 to 24 in 2011. To put that number in perspective, if we projected it over the entire month, it would give us 48 foreclosure deeds, a number that would exceed the total for any other month in 2011. In 2010, however, eight different months had more than 48 foreclosure deeds recorded.

Be sure to check back at the beginning of January when we'll have stats for the entire month of December and for all of 2011.

Their Last Words

2011-12-15T08:48:00.006-05:00

Yesterday morning while watching WCVB's News at 5:00AM a "tease" before the break caught my attention. In a well articulated tone the anchor said something like... "What did they say? Last words of famous people"... bam, a commercial. Unfortunately, time retrains prevented me from seeing the "Last Words" TV segment, so I looked it up this morning on the stations website, thebostonchannel.com. The website article mentioned a number of famous people and their last words. I choose ten and listed them below.

Composer Ludwig Von Beethoven: Applaud, my friends, the comedy is finished.

Circus P.T. Barnum: How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?

Actor Humphrey Bogart: I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.

Playwright George Bernarad Shaw: Dying is easy, comedy is hard.

Beatle George Harrison: Love one another.

Senator Robert F Kennedy: Is everyone else all right?

Author Oscar Wilde: My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.

General George Patton: This is a hell of a way to die.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.

Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa: Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.

The registry of deeds and the US mail

2011-12-14T10:20:00.001-05:00

Last week a wave of stories broke about plans to curtail mail service in the United States. This article from the December 5, 2011 New York Times, for example, mentions lengthening the time of delivery of first class mail. Now, a majority of pieces in that postage category are delivered the next day. Under the new plan, which involves among other things, closing many regional mail processing centers (including the one in Lowell), the quickest that first class mail would be delivered would be two days after mailing, even if it's only going across the street. This is just a proposal, but it seems clear that big changes will be coming to our national mail service.

The problems of the USPS got me thinking about the relationship between the registry of deeds and the mail. Approximately one-quarter of our daily intake of documents comes to the registry by mail or other delivery service (as opposed to in-person or electronic recordings).

Here are some of our observations about "the mail." By far the biggest volume arrives on Monday (or a Tuesday if there's a three day weekend). Tuesdays and Fridays tie for the next busiest mail day, while the volume on Wednesdays and Thursdays tail off considerably. Most of the mail that arrives on Mondays was sent by a bank or other institutional entity while mail received on the other days comes primarily form law offices.

When we use the term "mail", it refers to all documents delivered to us, be it by the US Postal Service, UPS or Fedex. The latter two are used almost exclusively by banks and institutions and rarely by law offices. As a percentage of our daily "mail", deliveries from UPS and Fedex are definitely increasing. These days, the document types most frequently received by mail are foreclosure related. There will be a spurt of orders of notice followed a few months later by an increase in foreclosure deeds. Since the Ibanez case, the number of foreclosure-related assignments received by mail has definitely increased.

The single biggest reason we reject mail is that the document presented for recording lacks a reference to a related document. It is essential that such a reference be present so that we can ascertain whether the document belongs in Recorded Land or Registered Land. Other reasons for rejection, in descending order of frequency, are documents sent to us are for another registry; there's a missing signature (either grantor, notary or on the check), and finally, the check accompanying check for recording fees may be stale or in the wrong amount.

Finally, the way to ensure that your mailed-in document gets recorded promptly is to include a self-addressed stamped envelope with it. Those get processed very quickly. Because they need additional handling, submissions that lack the required SASE are put aside so as not to delay those customers who follow the rules. We eventually record the mailed in docs that lack a SASE, but only after everything else has been recorded.

eBooks for Free

2011-12-13T10:56:00.009-05:00

As I get older, I get cheaper. Let me explain...

Last August my family gave me a Nook eReader for my sixtieth birthday (I'm the cheap one, not my family).
I love it.
But since then I've been buying an eBook every couple of weeks or so, that's a problem for a cheap guy like me.
I just finished reading a "small" book by humorist Dave Barry titled Dave Barry Turns 50. Now, if you've ever read Dave Barry you know, although very entertaining, his material is not very scholarly...in other words you can blast through one of his books in no time.
I paid $9.99 for Dave Barry Turns 50. Ten bucks for a quick read like that?! No way...but, as I mentioned I love my Nook.
What can I do?
The other day I met a friend and shared conversation and enjoyed a coffee with him (he had his own coffee and I had mine own, I'm not that cheap).

Me: You know, I love my Nook by I don't want to pay 10 bucks for an eBook every week.
Him: This coffee is good...Did you say something?
Me: I said since I turned sixty I'm too cheap to buy eBooks.
Him: Do you want a piece of Danish?
Me: I'd love a Danish but I'm not paying 2 bucks for one. Did I tell you I paid 10 bucks for Dave Barry Turns 50 ?
Him: I thought you turned sixty not fifty?
Me: I said "Dave Barry" turned fifty, not me. Maybe when Barry does turn sixty he'll get cheap like me and reduce the price of his eBooks. I'm hungry. I wonder what they're charging for a muffin?
Him: Get'em at the library?
Me: Why, are they selling muffins cheap at the library?
Him: Not the muffins, the eBooks.
Me: What?
Him: You can get your eBooks at the library for free right here in Lowell and most other surrounding communities.
Me: Really...are you saying I can download eBooks to my Nook (or Kindle) right from the library for free? Is it difficult to do?
Him: This Danish is fabulous...I think this is homemade jelly on it.
Me: Forget that...Do I need a special computer or buy software to borrow eBooks from the library.
Him: No, ...just go on to your local library's website, download the necessary free software they provide and you are ready to get a free eBook.
Me: Wow, maybe we should head to the Pollard Library.
Him: You don't have to go the library... you can download eBooks right from your home computer.
Me: I was talking about the cheap muffins you said they had.
Him: No cheap muffins...but free eBooks

Returning from the disabled list

2011-12-12T14:25:00.000-05:00

I've been absent from the blog and from work for a while. Back before Thanksgiving I suffered a detached retina which required immediate surgery. The procedure went well and the vision in that eye should gradually return to normal over the next few weeks. The biggest challenge was the post-care which required me to lie face-down for 17 consecutive days to allow everything to heal properly. It took a few days to adjust to that awkward positioning, but after that the challenge was more mental than physical. In that, modern technology came to my rescue. Between an iPad and a laptop, both positioned on the floor, I was able to watch TV (I saw a lot of football and hockey), surf the web, and enjoy all kinds of movies streamed via Netflix. All that made time pass quickly enough.

Today is my first day back at the registry. Ironically, at the same time that I was out injured, my office computer died (a sympathetic reaction?) so this morning was spent putting its replacement into operation, catching up on emails and doing the end of month reports I usually have finished a few days into the new month (my apologies to anyone inconvenienced by that delay). In the courthouse lobby this morning, a landlord I know who was waiting for Housing Court to open asked about recent trends in foreclosures. I confessed to losing track of that and other statistics, so I do have a bit of catching up in that regard to do over the next few days. In conclusion, thanks to Tony Accardi and Dick Regan and all the other registry employees for allowing me to convalesce without worrying about the office and for making the transition back to work such an easy endeavor.

The Seeing-Eye Mouse

2011-12-09T12:19:00.003-05:00

Often I get caught up in the everyday, simple uses of a computer...sending an email, looking for a good restaurant, receiving news updates etc. But today a fellow employee told me about a fabulous technology that demonstrates perfectly how computers can improve lives.

Watch...I'll bet you are as amazed as I was.

Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-12-08T09:19:00.003-05:00

I read Google's Technology News every morning...hey, I've admitted it before, I'm a true, blue, techie geek and proud of it.

But this morning when I logged into google's technology section I was confused, geek or no geek.

Why? I saw this headline: "Hacker Installs Ice Cream Sandwich on Kindle Fire"
What, the heck does that mean? I thought. I was baffled, yes still a geek, but a baffled one.

So I did what every true, blue, baffled, techie geek would do...I googled Ice Cream Sandwich.

Of course, the first hit I saw explained that an Ice Cream Sandwich was a vanilla flavored ice cream bar with a chocolate "cookie" on the top and bottom (we geeks loved them when we were kids).

But the next entry explained that Ice Cream Sandwich was a version of Andriod, google's popular mobile operating system.

What!? When!? Why!? How!? I thought I was a real geek! I've never heard of this before...So I did what every baffled, true, blue techie geek would do...I looked it up in wikipedia.

Here is what I found...like every operating system, Andriod releases improvements and fixes bugs. This is done by releasing updated versions.

As a true, blue, techie geek, I find Google uniquely clever. Case in point...At some point, for some reason Google decided to name each new version of Andriod after a dessert... and to name them in alphabetical order.

Up to this point, there have been seven versions of Andriod...Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb and yes...Ice Cream Sandwich.

So being a true, blue techie geek I'm already wondering...What will Google name the next Andriod version. It must begin with a "J", so will it be... Jam, Jello, Jelly, Jellybean, Junior Mint, Jalousie... etc?

Pearl Harbor, 70th Anniversary

2011-12-07T08:43:00.006-05:00

Seventy years ago today the Japanese Imperial Navy bombed the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The surprise attack left almost 2,400 dead, 1,178 wounded, sank a dozen U.S. warships and destroyed 323 aircraft.

Five years ago on the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor I watched a PBS program about the attack. The show was enhanced with numerous interviews of survivors telling what they saw and experienced on that infamous day. I found their stories the most amazing chronicles of heroism I ever heard in my life.

On a personal note...Every Pearl Harbor Day I think of my father. He passed away a number of years ago at the year of 70. My father was born in 1920 and was 21 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He,like so many others, joined the Navy just days after the attack. He saw heavy action in the North Atlantic aboard the USS Campbell, a Corvette warship. Corvettes were used to protect convoys as they brought supplies to troops in Europe. These fast destroyer-like ships would zigzag in front of the convoy seeking and destroying German U boats in their path. On one occasion torpedo stuck his ship damaging its engines and rudder. The ship was unable to move or maneuver. For twenty four hours the USS Campbell and its men sat like sitting ducks, motionless...but armed and ready to fight, every man fixed at his gun. In the early hours of the morning, a day later, the Campbell was finally rescued and towed to Reykjavik, Iceland where it was repaired and sent back out to continue its duties.

Days like today remind us of the special sacrifices made by Americans of that great, generation.

Below is a video from the official Pearl Harbor site titled "A Day at Pearl Harbor".

Windows 8... Coming in January

2011-12-06T09:08:00.003-05:00

My computer at home is running Microsoft Vista...it is a cumbersome Operating System that boots up very slowly. But, once its cranking it works fine.

I've my laptop computer for about three years now and I'll admit I've gotten used to Vista...but I've been tempted by the allure of Windows 7. I even thought I might upgrade it if I saw a good deal during this Christmas season.

I'm glad I didn't see a good Christmas deal.

Why? Well, I just read this morning that Microsoft is releasing Windows 8 in early January. And its sounds radically improved from Windows 7.

The most outstanding new feature in Windows 8 is the touch screen feature..yes, the mouse and keyboard will still be there...but you don't need to use them if you don't want to.

And on a more technical level Windows 8 will be compatible with ARM processors. ARM's are highly versatile microprocessors that use low power...this means they are perfect for use in mobile devices and tablet computers...so ARM's put the Windows 8 Operating System in the cell phone/tablet arena.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has developed a reputation for not delivering products timely...we'll see with Windows 8.

Famous IQ Scores

2011-12-05T08:48:00.014-05:00

Yesterday I started reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The book deals with extraordinary people and the unique opportunities that paved their path to success. One person mentioned in the book is Chris Langan. Langan is famous because his IQ is 195. To put this in perspective the average IQ score is 100 and a score of 140 or above is considered "genius". Langan's incredibly high IQ made me curious. I wondered what some other famous people's IQ's might be... so this morning I did some investigating and found the IQ scores of these well known people:

Albert Einstein (Scientist): IQ Score 160

Arnold Schwarzennegger (Actor/Politician/ Bodybuilder): IQ Score 135

Bill Gates (Microsoft Owner): IQ Score 160

Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State): IQ Score 140

James Woods (Actor): IQ Score 180

Stephen Hawking (Physicist): IQ Score 160

Steve Martin (Comedian/Actor): IQ Score 142

Reggie Jackson (Baseball Player): IQ Score 160

Bobby Fisher (Chess Champion): IQ Score 187

Madonna (Singer/Dancer/Actress): IQ Score 140

"Huckleberry Finn", the Great American Novel

2011-12-01T08:44:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was Samuel Langhorne Clemens' birthday...better known as Mark Twain. In celebration, google's doodle depicted a scene from Twain's most famous novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

I read Tom Sawyer many years ago.It's OK...but my favorite Twain novel is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...I am not alone in this assessment. Many literary critics even consider Huckleberry Finn the great American Novel.

Twain published Huckleberry Finn in 1884. It was a socially significant work, unlike Tom Sawyer. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is filled with philosophical and practical messages. Perhaps the two most significant are the concepts of human understanding and individualism.

I didn't read Huckleberry Finn until I was in my early twenty's. It had a powerful effect on me...you know when you read something or someone says something that hits you like a lightning bolt? That's what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn did to me.

My favorite passage from the novel is below, but first some background...

Huckleberry Finn and a slave named Jim ran off together (I'm simplifying). During their time together Huck and Jim became close friends, Jim even saved Huck's life...but social and religious beliefs in the 1840's demanded that Huck return the slave to his owner, Miss Watson. Huck was taught it was a matter of right and wrong...a matter of being moral or immoral.

The juxtaposition of what society and religion tell Huck he should do, and what he feels in his heart, creates an enormous moral conflict central to the novel...and actually life itself. Huck gives his dilemma deep thought then decides to return Jim in compliance with the accepted standards of society. He writes Jim's owner, Miss Watson a letter in which he tells her he has her slave. As Jim sleeps and Huck navigates the raft down the Mississippi River he holds the pivotal letter in his hands and says...

"It was a close place. I took it up , and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath and then says to myself: 'All right, then I'll GO to hell- and tore it up'."

Google "Indoor Maps"

2011-11-30T08:52:00.004-05:00

This is really cool, seriously.

Google is offering "indoor maps" for your smartphone.I'm talking about maps of the indoor layout of buildings...buildings like malls, airports, large parks etc.

Just think of the possibilities...you're in a mall and you feel like a cup of coffee, you wonder..."where's the coffee shop?". With google "indoor maps" all you have to do is pull out your phone, and google will determine where you are then display the floor plan of the mall... just zoom in and bingo, there's the coffee shop.

Of course, google indoor maps is in its infancy stage, so not many buildings are available right now...but as time goes on google will quickly build its inventory and surely plot larger facilities first.

Good News & Bad News About Real Estate Market

2011-11-29T08:35:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors released a report on single-family home sales for October. The reports indicates some good news and some bad news.

First, the good news...Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts rose 3% in October from a a year ago.

Now the bad news...the median selling price of a single-family home in Massachusetts dropped by 5.2%.

This is the fourth month in a row that sales have increased while prices have dropped.

Here are some specifics in the report taken from boston.com

During October, 3,057 detached single-family homes were sold in Massachusetts, and the median selling price for the month was $275,000, down from $290,000 in October 2010, the association said.As for the Bay State’s condominium market, 1,038 condos were sold in October, up 0.78 percent from the number in October 2010; condominium median selling prices in October were up 4.08 percent from the October 2010 median price to $255,00, the association said.

But the "big picture view" of the Massachusetts real estate market still shows trouble. Experts predict that sales for 2011 will be down from 2010 and 2009 while Foreclosures increase.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday activity set records. And as I mentioned above, real estate sales improved over the past four months of 2011. These are positive signs...but the question is, are they real indicators of long term improvement to our slumping real estate market?

We all hope so.

Cyber Monday Growing

2011-11-28T08:49:00.005-05:00

I remember a few years back when I first wrote about Cyber Monday, I thought it really was just another marketing gimmick for retailers.

I guess I was wrong.

Cyber Monday has become a major shopping event and a major money maker for retailers.

It is not just a shopping day for techie people anymore. In fact, experts estimate that 120 million people will shop online today with sales topping of $1 billion. That's about 10% of all holiday sales.

I found it interesting to discover that 71% of people who own a tablet computer will shop online and 53% who own smartphones will shop online.

The increase in Cyber Monday sales is a true indication that more and more people feel safe shopping online. Of course, the Internet is threatened by hackers and phony deals, but online consumers have become more sophisticated and better at steering away from dangerous Internet areas. This new consumer confidence has led to a 20% increase in 2010 sales over 2009.

Fun App Gets Me in Trouble

2011-11-25T09:10:00.006-05:00

The other day I found a fun App for my iPhone...actually, it was a little too much fun, for me anyway. Let me explain...

The App is called RedLaser. It is a barcode scanner/reader and its free.

Here's how it works...Simply point your smartphone camera at a product's barcode label and RedLaser captures the product information, then makes a beeping sound just like the one at a store's checkout counter. After RedLaser reads the barcode label, it displays the price, manufacturer, reviews and price of the product at competing stores.

As I said...its a fun App, BUT...

Last Tuesday my wife and I went food shopping for Thanksgiving. I hate stores and I hate shopping, usually. But I must admit, I was excited to go that day...Why?, because I wanted to try out RedLaser.

As I entered the store I immediately showed my wife my new product scanner App. "Watch this", I said as I picked up a loaf of bread, aimed the camera and RedLaser read the code. "See, see it says the product is bread and its cost $2.50 and you can buy it in XYZ store for $2.40". My wife snapped back "Yeah, I can tell its bread by looking at it and we are not in XYZ store".

As we strolled the aisles I purposefully drifted away from her so I could give RedLaser a good test ride.

I picked up a bag of potato chips...pointed, scanned, and heard my phone beep, potato chips $2.99, XYZ store price $2.79. My wife caught up with me. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Just scanning this item", I told her. "Put that away. You can hear that stupid beep all over the store".

I didn't put it away...I moved a few aisles away from her and... beeeep, scanned a can of peas. I saw a customer turn and look at me. I didn't care. Beeeep, I scanned a six pack of English Muffins; Beeeep, a dozen eggs; Beeeep, a bag of carrots. Then another customer gave me a smirky stare. Beeeep, who cares, beeeep, I love this App, beeeep, more stares... beeeep, beeeep.

I got tired of the dirty looks, so I found a quiet area in the frozen food section. I picked up a turkey, aimed and pointed...no beeeep. I tried again...no beeeep. What the heck? The barcode label was on the rounded part of the breast so RedLaser was having trouble reading it.

Determined, I turned the turkey on its side, aimed, pointed...still no beeeep. I stood it upright, aimed, pointed... again no beeeep. In frustration my attention turned away from the stubborn, frozen turkey. It was then I noticed a store manager with his hands on his hips eyeballing me. He began walking toward me. Quickly, I gave the turkey one last try, aim, point, success!...beeeep rang out of my phone. The manager moved faster.

Just then my wife appeared out of nowhere..."give me that phone before you get thrown out of the store", she says as she grabbed it from my hand. The manager stopped dead in his tracks. I glanced at him and sheepishly muttered beeeep...as I followed behind my wife like a naughty schoolboy.

Home prices continue to drop

2011-11-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

The Globe reported yesterday that the median sales price for single family homes in Massachusetts dropped 3.2% in FY11 (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) when compared to FY10 (July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010). This news prompted me to do some simple calculations based on deed recordings here at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds. Our system does not contain information on the usage of properties, so we can't tell whether a deed is for a single family home, an industrial building, or a vacant lot, but we do have prices and dates and addresses, so our information is of some use.

To do this analysis, I found the median price of the consideration stated on deeds recorded where the consideration was more than $60,000 and less than $900,000. This should eliminate all related-party transfers and sales for less than full consideration. It would also eliminate major developments in the million dollar range which, if included, might skew the numbers.

Here's what I found: the median price of all deeds recorded in calendar 2010 for the entire registry district was $251,000 while the median price for deeds recorded during the first ten months of 2011 was $246,000 which represents at drop of 2%. When the 2011 number is compared to the median deed price in 2007 ($280,000), we find a decrease of 12%. Looking back before the real estate boom commenced, back to 2002, we find a median deed price of $249,900 which is almost exactly the same as the current median price.

iCar Remote...Sure

2011-11-21T10:53:00.003-05:00

So I'm surfing the Internet for a topic for today's blog and I come across something called RedLaser which is an App that reads barcode labels. It sounds interesting, so I start looking for a RedLaser YouTube video that I can include with the blog entry. Success, but my interest is diverted to the "related video" section and a video that calls itself, "the coolest iPhone App Ever". The App is called iCar Remote.

Here is the YouTube posters' write up on the video

iCar Remote. It's basically a remote control for your car. Control windows and even drive it! Awesome. Get it from the APP STORE off your iphone.

Now, here is the video of coolest App ever

Disclaimer: If you are interested in purchasing iCar Remote I'll bet the manufacturer would be willing to throw in a bridge in Brooklyn for no additional cost.

Jobs, Gates and GUI

2011-11-17T09:50:00.004-05:00

I find technology and the men and women that develop it fascinating. Specifically, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates (Microsoft) capture my imagination. Recently, I came across an interesting confrontation between these two titans. At the center of the conflict was something called Graphical User Interface or GUI. I know, it sounds complicated, but stick with me here, its really not. You already know all about GUI and this is an interesting story...let me continue.

Back in the early days, computers could only generate and display small green (or gray) letters on a dark screen (if you are old like me, you'll remember this). The user controlled a computer by entering a "command prompt"...something like C:/config, (stuff like that). Computers could not display pictures, graphics, banners, etc...just boring little green letters (or gray).

Enter a genius (no, not Steve Jobs or Bill Gates)...In the late 1970's Xerox Company (yes, the copier company) developed a computer operating system that used a mouse and something called bit-mapping to command the computer. All the user had to do was move the mouse's arrow to an icon and click. Yes, you're right, this is the same system we use today to command a computer. This mouse driven system is called a Graphical User Interface system. I told you, this was easy...stick with me.

OK, lets get back to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. In 1979 Steve Jobs was invited to visit a Xerox Development Lab where he saw the revolutionary GUI (Graphical User Interface) in operation for the first time. Xerox's system wowed Jobs. He immediately assigned his Apple Engineers the task of duplicating the GUI to be used on Apple's new Macintosh Computer.

In 1984 the Macintosh made history when it was released with Apple's version of Xerox's Graphical User Interface.

OK, now to Bill Gates, so stick with me here...

The following year Gates' was running his small software development company named Microsoft. Microsoft did some work for Apple in those days so Gates and Jobs knew each other. Shortly after the release of the Macintosh, Bill Gates released his own Graphical User Interface operating system called Windows. When Steve Jobs found out he was furious.

Stick with me here, this gets good...

The anger Jobs called Gates to his office (remember in those days Jobs was a big timer and Gates was a small timer). According to Gates, during the meeting Jobs lambasted him for developing Windows and accused him of stealing Apple's Graphical User Interface Technology.

"I trusted you", Jobs screamed, "and now you're stealing from us!". Gates took all of Jobs' fury until he could stand not more...Finally, he looked Jobs straight in the eye and calmly said..."Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”

File this under great lines.

Steve Jobs never forgave Gates for developing Windows and the relationship between Microsoft and Apple ended with discord, a fact that had a wide impact on the future development of computers.

Mid-month statistics

2011-11-16T11:24:00.001-05:00

November is half over so its time to take a peek at our recording statistics to date. The number of deeds and mortgages recorded during the first fifteen days of 2011 is almost unchanged from the same period in 2010. From November 1 through 15 of 2010, there were 212 deeds and 760 mortgages. For the same fifteen days in 2011, there were 216 deeds and 754 mortgages, an increase of 2% and a decrease of 1% respectively.

Foreclosure related documents are a different story and unfortunately the theme of that story is not a good one. The number of orders of notice recorded from November 1 through 15 of 2011 was 48 which is an 85% increase from the 26 recorded during the same period in 2010. Similarly, the number of foreclosure deeds for this period of 2011 was 21 which constituted a 91% increase from the 11 recorded in 2010. These foreclosure increases haven't continued for long enough to declare them to be a trend, but they certainly bear watching. More on that in future posts.

SJC Justice Cordy on state of judiciary

2011-11-15T10:26:00.001-05:00

Associate Justice Robert Cordy of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts (REBA). Justice Cordy first explained that he could not comment upon cases like Ibanez, because other cases with like issues were now pending before the court.

His remarks instead were on the state of the judiciary in the Commonwealth which he called "a catastrophe in slow motion" due to the ever shrinking funding provided to the courts. With the number of court employees down by 1200 since 2007, the courts face more business than ever. Tough economic times give rise to more litigation and much of that litigation involves pro se litigants who take up much of the time of court officials. He said that the negative consequences of this decrease in funding with an increase in volume of cases are unavoidable and likely to get much worse. On top of that, we are now in an era of "unprecedented political attacks on the judiciary" at a time of "declining knowledge of civics" by the general public. In all, it is a recipe for disaster.

While acknowledging the reality of declining revenues, Justice Cordy explained that the judiciary differs from many other government entities. If a road needs repaving but the money is not available, the road usually can wait. The administration of justice, on the other hand, cannot wait. He quoted former Chief Justice Margaret Marshall who said that the judiciary is the oxygen of a democracy: you don't realize its value until you don't have it.

Justice Cordy urged a pardigm shift in how the judiciary is funded and in how that funding is spent. Courts must be made more efficient and more accessible through the use of technology and a flexible workforce. He closed by quoting former US Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand who said, in 1951, that the Eleventh Commandment in a democracy is "Thou shalt not ration justice."

The Future is BrinBot

2011-11-14T09:12:00.003-05:00

Google is crazy about robots...and is investing in the development and advancement of human-like robots capable of doing everyday tasks. The concept is called Singularity and it sounds like something out of a science fiction movie

Singularity — a time, possibly just a couple decades from now, when a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form that we can’t predict or comprehend in our current, limited state.

At that point, the Singularity holds, human beings and machines will so effortlessly and elegantly merge that poor health, the ravages of old age and even death itself will all be things of the past (NYT).

Correction, Singularity sounds more like something out of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

Recently, Google co-founder Sergey Brin remotely controlled a robot at a NASA campus during a Singularity Conference from miles away. Google calls its robot BrinBot. The "human Brin" sat in a remote computer lab and instructed the "robot Brin" to circulate around the room and engage attendees in social conversation.

Billerica Homestead Seminar

2011-11-10T11:30:00.020-05:00

Yesterday Register of Deeds, Dick Howe and I conducted a Homestead Seminar at the Senior Center in Billerica. Approximately thirty people attended and listened to the Register explain the recent changes to the Homestead Law and the instructions on how to fill out the Homestead form. The attentive audience had plenty of questions...probably the one asked the most was the status of Homesteads filed before the March changes. BTW, Homesteads filed prior to the change are grand-fathered.

Billerica Homestead Seminar

2011-11-09T12:00:00.001-05:00

Today Tony and I traveled to the Billerica Council on Aging to talk about the Declaration of Homestead. An overflow crowd of 32 gathered to hear a brief presentation on homestead basics and a discussion of changes that occurred with a major amendment to the law back in March.

Many of those in attendance already had homesteads recorded but they had heard about the new law and were anxious to learn how it might effect them. While we can't answer specific questions, we can offer general commentary about the law. If anyone would like to schedule a homestead seminar for their group or organization, just send an email to lowelldeeds[at]comcast.net. All that is needed is a meeting space big enough to accommodate the expected crowd.

Facebook Needs U

2011-11-08T09:01:00.004-05:00

Help Wanted

That was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's message when he visited Massachusetts last week.

Zuckerberg told a large group of Harvard students...

The next five or ten years are going to be about all the different products and industries that can be rethought.

In other words, the billionaire 27 year old believes there will be many employment opportunities in the computer industry in the future and he wants to entice the best to Facebook.

Way back, when Zuckerberg was just a freshman at Harvard he created a precursor to Facebook called Facemash... In the process he hacked his way into the college's main computer system, an act that al.

But yesterday, all was forgiven and administration officials welcomed Zuckerberg with open arms.

His message was clear...There's a lot of really smart people here and a lot of them are making decisions about where they're going to work" he told the group of admiring students... and he wants them.

Now there is an employee message with a real promise, considering Facebook has 800 million users right now.

Reducing mortgage principal as a real estate remedy

2011-11-07T09:06:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, New York Times Op-Ed columnist Joe Nocera added his voice to the growing chorus of those who believe that reducing the principal of underwater mortgages is the key to any rebound in real estate. Nocera acknowledges that this approach seems unfair to those who were more restrained in their borrowing, and would tend to reward those who made risky decisions. For those reasons, it's an intellectual challenge to acknowledge the benefits of this approach.

In the several years since the real estate bubble burst, many approaches to stabilizing real estate have been tried, but strategies that simply restructuring mortgages that are underwater or reducing their interest rates have repeatedly proven to be completely ineffective. With so much of our economy so closely tied to housing, its unlikely that any broad recovery can occur until real estate begins to rebound. Without some drastic measures, that will take many years.

October recording statistics

2011-11-04T12:46:00.002-04:00

Here are the recording statistics for major document types for October 2011 compared to October 2010:

Comparing October to October . . .
Deeds: 389 in 2011 vs 447 in 2010 - a 13% decline
Mortgages: 1103 in 2011 vs 1508 in 2010 - a 27% decline
Foreclosure Deeds: 33 in 2011 vs 35 in 2010 - a decline of 6%
Orders of Notice: 65 in 2011 vs 90 in 2010 - a decline of 28%

Comparing first ten months of 2011 to same period in 2010 . . .
Deeds: 4227 in 2011 vs 4448 in 2010 - a 5% decline
Mortgages: 9104 in 2011 vs 10481 in 2010 - a 13% decline
Foreclosure Deeds: 350 in 2011 vs 553 in 2010 - a decline of 37%
Orders of Notice: 599 in 2011 vs 1063 in 2010 - a decline of 44%

High Volume Recording Day

2011-11-03T08:46:00.003-04:00

The Middlesex North Registry of Deeds reopened yesterday after being closed for two days due to a power outage at the Lowell Superior Courthouse. We expected a busy day and had one.

Two major factors that also contributed the high volume... the two days we were closed were the last day of October and the first day of November, traditionally busy days.

In total we recorded 837 documents, probably our biggest recording day in seven years.

Two Hundred and Eighteen of the 837 documents recorded were e-recording. Watching these come in was an experience. Let me explain...once an employee logs into the e-server the number of e-recordings waiting to be processed pops up...so if we have eighty in queue and record one the amount usually drops to 79, but no yesterday.

Yesterday, E-recordings were coming in so fast that when we recorded one there were ten more added. At one point I asked, "how many 'e's' left?" and was told "25". Twenty minutes later I asked again "how many left?"... the answer "45".

And since the registry did not receive snail mail, UPS or FedEx for two days their deliveries were huge.

I'm proud to say our staff did a terrific job. By the end of the day everything (including hundreds of pieces of mail) was recorded and no one waited more than ten minutes.

Registry back in business

2011-11-02T15:11:00.001-04:00

After being closed the last two days due to storm, the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds re-opened today. It took us an hour or so to get all the computers running - the lengthy outage made it a more complicated recovery than is usually the case - but we were fully operational by 9:45 am. As of 3 pm, we have recorded 790 documents which is more than 3 times our daily average (which would make sense - we were closed 2 days plus today). Several hundred of the recordings were electronically submitted.

Once we have fully recovered from this outage, we will re-assess our disaster recovery plans and will report fully on them here.

Middlesex North Registry of Deeds post-storm update

2011-11-01T14:24:00.002-04:00

The Lowell Superior Courthouse has been without electrical power since Saturday night's storm. Consequently, the Trial Court closed the building yesterday and again today and will continue to do so until power has been restored. The Middlesex North Registry of Deeds, located inside the courthouse, has also been closed both days.

If power is restored overnight, we will be open for business tomorrow morning in our normal manner. However, if the power remains out, we will establish partial operations at Lowell City Hall in the basement Human Relations Conference Room from 10 am until 3 pm tomorrow and each day continuing until regular operations are restored.

At Lowell City Hall, we anticipate accepting documents for recording for subsequent recording once the registry itself resumes operation. We will assign each document delivered to us in this manner a sequential number that will control the order of recording once the registry itself comes fully into operation. Customers using this service will be able to access MassLandRecords.com to do pre-recording rundowns and then will be permitted to view either the previously received documents or hand-written daily sheets that will be prepared as they were in the days before computers were utilized for this task.

While we will not be able to assign actual book and page numbers or time of recording, this system will allow customers to convey documents into the custody of the registry with an extremely high degree of confidence that no other documents, other than the ones you have already had the opportunity to see, will get on record before your's. Hopefully, this will all have been a contingency planning exercise and power will be back on in the courthouse overnight. If it is not and if you are under pressure to record, please come see us at Lowell City Hall if you have any questions. Unfortunately, because of extremely limited internet access here in Lowell (I'm doing this post from the city library), it will be difficult to update you from here. Please check with MassLandRecords.com for additional announcements.

Delaware sues MERS

2011-10-28T15:07:00.001-04:00

Yesterday the state of Delaware filed suit against MERS for a long list of "unfair and deceptive trade practices." An article about the suit in Business Week is here and a press release from Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden is here. It will take a while to sort out all the counts of the suit, but it seems from the press release that the main objections to MERS are not with its overall structure but with a failure to follow its own procedures. This is a developing story so I'll be following it closely and will post relevant updates on this site as they occur.

Halloween, Digitally

2011-10-27T08:37:00.004-04:00

I'm not really a Halloween guy, but I know many people love it. When I was a kid, way back, a group of us would get together and travel from house to house with lipstick or makeup on our faces. Those of us that were really creative would wear a hat. Today Halloween and Trick or Treating have become much more sophisticated, from spooky houses to elaborate, realistic scary customs.

And now Halloween has gone high-tech. There are numerous Halloween Apps available to download to both iPhones and Andriod smart phones (note, they are not free)... Here are a few examples:

iPhone Apps

Halloween Costume Fashion Fun for Kids and Adults
Don't know what to wear for Halloween? This App suggests popular customs including photos. And if one hits your fancy you can buy it online.

Carve It!
Remember the old days when the only way to carve a pumpkin was with a knife? No more...with this App you can carve a "digital pumpkin" with your finger...and even email it to a friend.

Android Apps

Trick or Tracker
This one is my favorite...This App allows you to keep track of your children while they are Trick or Treating. The App periodically sends a text message indicating where your child is located. And, if you want, you can set a limit on how far your child can travel. Its called a "geofence". If the child goes outside the "geofence", the App sends you an alert. Now that's cool.

Halloween Planner
This is a party planner...more specifically, a Halloween Party planner. This App helps you organize and purchase what you need to throw the scariest Halloween Party ever.

Some background on the "new" MassLandRecords

2011-10-26T16:15:00.002-04:00

The new version of MassLandRecords moved into the primary position on October 1 - you can still opt into the old version at least until January 1, 2012. As everyone gets used to the new application, I thought some background of how the new version came about might be of interest to readers:

In the summer of 2002, Middlesex North became the firstregistry of deeds in Massachusetts to install the ACS computer system. Employees and customers quickly becamecomfortable with the new system which was known as 20/20. Other registries followed with ACSinstallations at regular intervals. MassLandRecords soon followed, hosted first by ACS but then (and now) bythe Secretary of State’s office.

While customers appreciated the 24/7 web access to registryrecords provided by MassLandRecords, many questioned why the web site did notmore closely resemble the more user-friendly 20/20 search application. I had to agree.

One of the biggest differences between 20/20 and theMassLandRecords was the way search results were returned. A search of JOHN SMITH on 20/20 would yieldan alphabetized list of all variations of that name. You could scroll down through the entire set of results or, byclicking on the tip of one of the columns, resort the data by document type,address, or any other variable. Byclicking on a line of data, the document image was fully visible in anadjoining window.

On MassLandRecords, the same search yielded only a singleentry for each variant of the name (SMITH, JOHN A; SMITH, JOHN JR; etc) with anumber to the right indicating how many separate documents contained thatparticular variant of the name. Clicking on the JOHN A line opened all of the entries containing thename JOHN A SMITH. To view entries forJOHN SMITH JR required you to reverse course and do the same process overagain. Expanding the entries to displayadditional data required more clicks and there was no ability to re-sort theresults of a particular search.

On January 25, 2007, the ACS Users Group which consists ofrepresentatives of all registries of deeds in the Commonwealth that use the ACScomputer system, met in Worcester to recommend changes to MassLandRecords. After a series of meetings throughout 2007,the group requested that the website’s functionality be made to mirror that ofthe 20/20 search system used in the registries.

That was not the only change requested. Registry users can be divided into twocategories: “real estate professionals” such as lawyers, paralegals, brokers,appraisers and others who deal with real estate for a living; and “casualusers” – a home owner looking for a copy of her deed, a genealogist researchingthe history of a residence, or anyone else who uses MassLandRecords once oroccasionally. Those of us who fieldphone calls from casual users know that a major problem for this class is overpopulating the search screen. Confronted with the standard MassLandRecords search screen, the casualuser felt a need to enter something in every available field of the query. In doing so, the query was made toorestrictive and eliminated the very document the user was looking for.

To cut down on this over population problem, the ACS UsersGroup also asked that a new version of MassLandRecords would default to a“basic” search screen that would only have fields for limited information suchas first and last name, but that an “advanced” search function containing allthe traditional query fields be only one click away for professional users ofthe website. Since the number ofoccasional users who visit the site dwarfs the number of professionals, theUsers Group concluded a two-tiered basic and advanced search architecture wasan important modification.

A Thermostat That Learns

2011-10-25T08:54:00.005-04:00

Have you ever heard of Tony Fadell?
I hadn't, until this morning that is.

Tony Fadell is "the father of the iPod". I know, you (and I) thought that was Steve Jobs.
Nope, its Fadell.

Ten years ago, while working for Apple, Fadell conceived of the idea of the iPod and brought it to executives. Although the concept originally meet resistance, it eventually led to over 300 million sales... and a historic music revolution.

Now the man who revolutionized the digital music industry has set his sights on another frontier.

The thermostat...
Yes, I'm talking about the household thermostat.

But Fadell's thermostat is no ordinary thermostat. Its a "smart-thermostat".
Fadell describes it as more of a mini-computer than a device that simply reads and regulates the temperature in a house.

Here is how it works...For the first week after installation you have to set the temperature manually...then the "smart" in "smart-thermostat" takes over:

In the first week, it relies on manual adjustments. But after that, algorithms designed by machine learning experts, set the temperature automatically. Those algorithms refine themselves every time you manually adjust the temperature. Sensors constantly monitor temperature and humidity, as well as ambient light and activity near the device or farther away in the house. "We can see if there is anyone in your home," says Fadell. "We learn your schedule and your temperature preferences over a week. And we adapt continuously over time. (CNN Money)

In other words...Fadell's "smart-thermostat" learns when you are in the house, when you come home, what temperature you like while watching TV, what temperature you prefer for sleeping etc. Now that is smart...for a thermostat.

The new thermostat is being developed by Fadell's own company called Nest and will be revealed to the public today and go on sale in mid-November...for $249.

Kodak and disruptive technology

2011-10-24T10:32:00.003-04:00

While real estate and registry news are the two most obvious themes for this site, technology is a topic that's always of interest to us. For that reason, a story on the future of Kodak in Friday's New York Times caught my attention. If you're old enough to remember cameras in the pre-digital age, you were probably a regular Kodak customer. I know I was. For years, picking up some of those small yellow boxes of 35mm film was routine. But at some point I, like everyone else, made the jump to digital photography and Kodak's core business - selling that 35mm film - melted away to nothing. As the Times story says, "Kodak's phenomenal success in film would also be its undoing, making its managers complacent and slow to adapt to change."

By the time that Kodak's leaders accepted the fact that their core product was doomed to obsolescence, the company had lost any technological edge it may have grabbed had it embraced digital technology early on (it was a Kodak scientist who invented the world's first digital camera).

Now, Kodak has staked its future on consumer inkjet printers. Their spokesperson explains that the company has a "treasure trove" of inkjet technology and that such a strategy plays to the company's core competencies since it is at the "intersection of materials science and digital imaging science." Unlike other manufacturers of inkjet printers that price the machines low and the ink high, Kodak is supposed to sell slightly more expensive machines but much more affordable ink refills. Still, Kodak only has 6% of the consumer inkjet market while Hewlett Packard has 60%.

Despite the confident talk emerging from Kodak, if you Google the company name, many of the results are stories predicting the company's imminent bankruptcy. I don't know about that but I am convinced that the technological world is moving towards smart phones & tablets and away from desktop computers with attached printers. Right now, most of us are more comfortable reading from paper than from a screen, so I can understand why someone might say "there will always be a need for printers' but that's just a habit that will change over time. All I know is that one last box of yellow film I have tucked away in a drawer at home is going to stay there because a decade or so from now it will be a valuable artifact of a bygone technology and a symbol of a once-great company that refused to change.

Flood damaged real estate documents in Vermont

2011-10-21T13:20:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week I read an article that described how real estate closings in much of Vermont have screeched to a halt because many of the state's land records were damaged in the flooding that followed Hurricane Irene back at the end of August. Vermont is one of three states - I believe Connecticut and Rhode Island are the other two - in which land records are maintained at the municipal level. To do a title search in Vermont, instead of going to a county-level registry of deeds, you must go to the local town hall where the land records are kept in the town clerk's vault along with marriage, birth and death records.

Vermont law requires these storage vaults to be fireproof but not water proof. It appears that the law also does not require any type of microfilm or digital backup of the original paper records. When the late August flooding hit, therefore, the land records in many towns became soaked, a condition that quickly would prove fatal to the continued existence of those records unless they were immediately freeze dried and professionally recovered.

To me, one of the main attractions of digitizing our records was that we could easily and affordably make multiple copies and store those copies in multiple places. On top of that, we have since World War Two, at least, produced microfilm of all recorded documents with that film being stored offsite in a secure location. No technology is perfect: microfilm can degrade over time. And computer programs and storage methodology can change over time rendering otherwise intact digital images unusable. Have you tried viewing material stored on a 5.25 inch floppy disk recently?

The Vermont situation is a valuable reminder of the importance of thorough disaster planning. Hopefully, ours will never be tested like that.

SJC issues new foreclosure decision

2011-10-20T21:00:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week the SJC released its decision in Bevilacqua v Rodriguez, a case that involved a defective mortgage foreclosure. Here are the facts: In 2005, Pablo Rodriguez granted a mortgage on his home in Haverhill to Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc (hereafter MERS) as nominee of Finance America LLC. On June 29, 2006, US Bank executed a foreclosure deed on the property in which it purchased the property at the foreclosure auction it conducted (which is what usually happens in a foreclosure). On July 21, 2006, MERS assigned the mortgage that had already been foreclosed to US Bank. On October 9, 2006, US Bank sold the property to Francis Bevilacqua. Because of uncertainty about the strength of his ownership of the property, Bevilacqua filed suit in the Land Court to clarify his title to the property. The Land Court ruled that Bevilacqua did not own the property and he appealed.

In this case, the mortgage that had been signed by Mr. Rodriguez was held by MERS but the promissory note apparently was held by US Bank at the time Rodriguez stopped paying. US Bank would be the entity to conduct the foreclosure. But, before it could commence the foreclosure and certainly before it could conduct the foreclosure auction and then sign the foreclosure deed, US Bank had to be the owner of the mortgage. Otherwise it would have no ownership interest in the property and therefore nothing to foreclose. Because the assignment of the mortgage from MERS to US Bank came after US Bank had already foreclosed, its foreclosure was defective and title did not pass to it pursuant to the foreclosure deed it executed. Because US Bank did not hold title, when it conveyed the property to Mr Bevilaqua with a regular deed, it owned nothing so Mr Bevilaqua got nothing. This much of this case simply confirms the SJC’s ruling earlier this year in US Bank v Ibanez that an entity conducting a foreclosure must already have the mortgage assigned to it before the foreclosure sale occurs.

The new issue addressed in this case is the ownership status of someone like Bevilacqua who is the third party purchaser of a previously foreclosed home. In almost every foreclosure, the high bid at the foreclosure auction is made by the lender that is conducting the foreclosure. Once the foreclosure deed is recorded, that lender becomes the owner of the property. Because the new owner wants to be a lender and not a property owner, it puts the property up for sale not as a foreclosure but as a normal arms-length sale to a third party (Mr Bevilacqua in this case). Ibanez had left open the question of the rights of such a third party buyer who purchased from a lender that had conducted a defective foreclosure. Bevilacqua quite clearly says that if the foreclosing lender did not obtain valid title through the foreclosure sale, no one who purchases from that lender could obtain valid title either. Those are the buyers who, according to the Globe headline, are left in limbo. That’s true, but I believe after Ibanez most people had already concluded that was the case. At least now there’s a bit more legal clarity.

Housing Starts Increase

2011-10-19T09:29:00.004-04:00

Housing starts surged in September according to the US Commerce Department. The 10.2% increase is the highest since April of 2010. Interestingly enough, according to the report the demand for rental property is fueling the building industry. Fifty three percent of new housing starts are buildings with five or more units. This statistic may be a reflection of younger buyers shying away from the depressed single family housing market.
And speaking of the single family market...single family housing starts rose 1.7%. Of course, even this modest increase is welcome news in this market. The increases differ regionally with the major increase in housing starts are in the West.

Mass AG contemplating suit v lenders

2011-10-18T11:02:00.003-04:00

Today's Globe reports that Attorney General Martha Coakley is poised to file suit against Bank of America and other major mortgage lenders for irregularities in their foreclosure practices. The story specifically mentions a tendency to enter into mortgage modification agreements with financially distressed homeowners, but then to go ahead with foreclosure anyway in violation of the spirit if not the letter of the modification agreement.

For all the effort put into modifying mortgage to allow homeowners to remain in their residences, only a tiny fraction of homes have been saved. Clearly something is not working. Perhaps a suit like this would force some meaningful negotiations. The current system not only misleads the home owners in that position, it also causes continuous damage to the neighborhoods in which the foreclosures occur.

A radical proposal for stabilizing the housing market

2011-10-17T09:16:00.000-04:00

Martin Feldstein, a Harvard economist who was chair of Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers advanced a bold proposal for stabilizing the nation's housing market in a recent New York Times Op-Ed. Since the bursting of the housing bubble, Americans have lost $9 trillion dollars in the housing market, with prices declining 8% since June 2010. Feldstein maintains that unless we can halt this slide there is no hope for economic recovery. He proposes writing down the principal on all US home mortgages to 110% of the home's value. The cost of this write down would be shared equally by the banks and the Federal government.

While this proposal has little chance of being enacted given the political climate today, it does get to the heart of the problem with housing - the vast number of homeowners who are hopelessly underwater with their loans. People in this situation cannot sell in order to move to a region where a job might be available nor can they refinance to take advantage of a lower rate and gain more disposable income due to a lower monthly mortgage payment. They also face the ever present temptation to simply walk away from the home which would add to the consistently high number of foreclosures which more than anything else continue to drive down the value of everyone's home.

Wozniak waits for iPhone 4S

2011-10-14T10:19:00.004-04:00

Apple released the iPhone 4S today. People all over the world waited in line over-night to get their hands on the new iPhone.
First in line in Los Gatos, California was Steve Wozniak. Wozniak founded Apple COmputer along with Steve Jobs back in 1970 and is still on the payroll.

I saw this video and just had to share it.

New HP 9050dn

2011-10-14T09:13:00.004-04:00

As I write we are installing a new HP9050dn printer in our Customer Service Department. The new printer will replace an older HP 9000. The page count on the HP 9000 is close to 700,000 which truthfully, is not a huge amount for this work horse. But... last summer the HP 9000 began to give us some "minor problems".
The public uses this device to print images of documents. Since we no longer have record books in circulation this printer is essential to the operation of the registry. For this reason even "minor problems" with our Customer Service printer are unacceptable.
The HP9050dn looks and operates exactly like the HP9000. These printers are designed for high volume use so they lack the "typical bells and whistles" you might find on a more consumer friendly printer.
Since the HP 9000 still has some life in it our intentions are to keep it in operation but to move it to a less vital place in the registry.

Once Upon a Time

2011-10-13T08:54:00.006-04:00

Once upon a time around 1990 I bought my first cell phone. It came in a big black case and weighed about 7 pounds. I carried it over my shoulder using an attached strap. The real purpose of the case, was not to protect the phone rather it was to hold the phone's huge battery (about 6"X10").

Once upon a time my 7 lb cell phone could do nothing but make phone calls. Well, let me correct that, it could make phone calls provided I was near a transmitter tower.

Once upon a time the life of my huge cell phone battery was about eight hours whether I used the phone or not. And if I didn't train it well (I'm talking about the battery) when it was new, I would get about four hours of use before it died.

Once upon a time the only people that had cells phone were business people (I was in the real estate business at the time). The "average person" had no need for a cell phone.

Once upon a time all cell phone calls, coming in or going out, cost... are you ready...$.50 a minute. I had a friend that routinely received cell phone bills in the range of $1,100 a month.

Once upon a time...cell phones were a luxury.

This is no fairy tale...once upon a time this was all true. But things have changed.

Yesterday a report was released stating there are currently 327.6 million cell phones in the US. This is amazing when you consider there are only 315 million men, women and children in the country. Americans are in love. People are talking, texting, taking pictures etc with their cell phones.

Today, I own an Apple iPhone 4. It weighs 4.8 oz. It is 4.5 inches tall and 2.3 inches wide. I carry my iPhone in my shirt pocket, nice and close to my heart. It comforts me.

My cell phone makes me feel... like I'll live happily ever after. I guess there are many others that feel the same.

Globe North reports uptick in home sales

2011-10-12T15:25:00.003-04:00

This Sunday's "North" section of the Boston Globe reported an uptick in home sales in August compared to the statistics from August 2010. Recordings here at Middlesex North corroborated that trend with overall deed recordings for August 2011 up 14% from the number recorded in August 2010. That trend continued into September, with the 2011 deeds for that month up 10% over the same month in the previous year. The year-to-date numbers through September which include a relatively slow period back in the spring show an overall decline, with the January to September 2011 figures for deeds 4% less than those from the same period in 2010.

I did look at the number of deeds recorded for each of the towns in the Middlesex North District for September of this year and last:

Town         Sept 2010 deeds      Sept 2011 deeds
Billerica              66                            54
Carlisle               13                             8
Chelmsford         56                           80
Dracut                42                           44
Dunstable             2                             3
Lowell                98                          139
Tewksbury          38                            55
Tyngsborough      23                            16
Westford             43                            44
Wilmington          41                            25

Registered Land Certificate Storage

2011-10-11T09:32:00.008-04:00

Through the years the registry has used several ways to organize and store Registered Land certificates. The first storage method was bound books. About three years ago we changed this and began storing certificates in file folders held in conventional file cabinets. Both systems worked well, but consumed large amounts of floor space. Because we scan new and changed certificates daily, the public views electronic images rather than the original.
The public's use of digital images instead of paper gives us the opportunity to change to a space saving storage system. We decided metal file shelves similar to those used to hold medical records would be very efficient, so we purchase five of these.
Last week we finished assembling the units and will begin filling them with new certificates in the next two weeks.

Pre-1976 Grantor/Grantee Indexes

2011-10-07T10:56:00.001-04:00

One are in which the new MassLandRecords is a huge upgrade over the old version for this registry is that the new version now includes all Grantor and Grantee Indexes from 1629 to 1976 which is when the searchable database index begins. For the pre-1976 indexes, we have simply scanned the index books that have long existed and made the scanned images of their pages available. These images have been available within the registry on the Public Access terminals for four or five years, but because of the size and number of images, we had not been able to make them accessible via our website.

Not only does the new site contain these images, in an upgrade that went into effect just days ago, you can now search for the page you need by name. To try it out, go to "search criteria" on the upper menu bar and select "Pre-1976 Grantor Index". From the date range drop down menu, select "1901-1915". In the name field type SMITH JOHN and click search. A set of names will be returned with a small arrow pointing to the name that is closest to the one you searched for. The names on this list are the first name on each of the index pages. Select the one that is closest to your name, click on it, and display that image which contains that name and all of the additional names on that page. There is no hyperlink feature (yet), so simply write down the book and page number of the document of interest to you and switch to either the Book Search feature (for documents recorded since 1952) or the Unindexed Property feature (for documents recorded prior to 1952)

Columbus Day

2011-10-07T10:34:00.001-04:00

Just a reminder that the registry will be closed this coming Monday, October 10, 2011, in recognition of Columbus Day.

Steve Jobs RIP

2011-10-06T09:16:00.006-04:00

Last month when Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple I wanted to write something about him and what he accomplished.
I didn't.

Truthfully, I never felt confident enough that my meager writing ability could do Steve Jobs and his accomplishments justice.
I feel the same today as I try to digest his death.

I am not an Apple fanatic. In fact I own and have owned Windows PC's all my life.
But Apple's accomplishments are undeniable and Steve Jobs was the catalyst.
He was a game changer and the game he changed, altered the world.

Last night around 8:00PM I got a breaking news alert informing me of Steve Jobs on my iPhone 4.
I was stunned. Sure, I knew he was failing. Sure I knew it was only a matter of time...but every time I thought of Job's inevitable death I thought maybe next month or maybe next week or maybe even tomorrow, but I never thought today. He could never die today. Jobs lived in the future.

As the media world grabbed the story of his death, I watched several shows celebrating the life of Jobs. More than once I heard him compared to another genius, Thomas Edison.
I disagree.

Edison was a scientist. He took electricity and made it light.
Steve Jobs was a time mechanic. He took tomorrow and made it today.

My favorite Jobs' story occurred in 1983. Apple was emerging as a major computer company and Jobs needed someone to take care of the day to day business. He set his sights on Pepsi CEO John Scully. During their meeting Scully resisted Jobs' offer to take over Apple. Scully told Jobs he knew nothing about computers. But the persistent Jobs knew what he wanted, and he wanted Scully. Here is how John Scully tells the story:

Steve was dressed in his mock turtleneck, blue jeans and running shoes. In those days, he had very dark hair and deep brown piercing eyes. He looks at his running shoes a long time. Then he said, 'Do you really want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?’

And change the world he did!

RIP Steve Jobs

September statistics

2011-10-05T11:00:00.004-04:00

The mainstream media is full of reports of a rise in foreclosures, but that's not shown up here as of yet. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The 33 orders of notice filed in September 2011 represent a 79% decrease from the 155 filed in September 2010. Foreclosure deeds are also down, dropping from 56 in 2010 to 38 in 2011, a drop of 32%.

Another bright spot is the increase in the number of deeds recorded. The 468 we saw recorded this September is a 10% increase over the 426 from last year. Unfortunately, mortgages continue to lag. In September 2010 there were 1393 but in September 2011 there were only 1098, a decline of 10%.

Now that we are three-quarters of the way through 2011, I can offer combined statistics for the first three quarters of the year:

Deeds: In 2010 (January through September) there were 4001; for the same period of 2011 there were 3838, a decline of 4%.

Mortgages: In 2010 (January through September) there were 8973; for the same period of 2011 there were 8001, a decline of 11%.

Foreclosure Deeds: Deeds: In 2010 (January through September) there were 518; for the same period of 2011 there were 317, a decline of 39%.

Orders of Notice: In 2010 (January through September) there were 973; for the same period of 2011 there were 534, a decline of 45%.

Journalism 101 and the iPhone

2011-10-04T09:54:00.004-04:00

Every first year, journalism students knows a well written article must answer the questions "Who, What, Where, and When" in the first paragraph...so here I go:

Who: Apple Computer
What: The Introduction of the iPhone 5
Where: Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California
When: Today at 1:00 PM Eastern Time

And every first year, journalism student knows after he/she tells the reader "who, what, where and when" a well written article needs a body that gives additional details...so here I go:

It has been fourteen months since Apple released iPhone 4 which was a huge hit selling over 20 million. iPhone 4 is a tough act to follow, but iPhone 5 has features that may make it the most popular smartphone in history. The iPhone 5 will run on Apples' new iOS5 software and be powered by its much touted A5 Chip. The new phone is thinner, faster and more attractive.

Of course, any good, first year, journalism student knows if he/she puts a little human interest spin in an article readers love it...so here I go:

Today's event will be the first since Apple's megastar CEO, Steve Jobs resigned his position because of poor health. Rumor has it, the ailing Jobs will make a cameo appearance at the today's event which his predecessor, Tim Cook will preside over.

And every smart, first year, journalism student knows a good article is never too long...so here I'll end.

New MassLandRecords now default application

2011-10-03T10:47:00.003-04:00

The changeover to the new version of MassLandRecords as the default search application took place over the weekend. I've been writing about it for a couple of weeks now so it really shouldn't be a surprise to any of our readers. Still, it is a bit of a shock when it first occurs. Here are some of the topics that we've reviewed recently:

Navigating the New MassLandRecords (September 20)

Plans on the New MassLandRecords (September 29)

New MassLandRecords: Registered Land (September 30)

While the changeover appears to have gone smoothly, here are a couple of observations from our own experience this morning and from some of the user calls and comments we've already received.

The ADVANCED button: No matter how you choose to search (based on what you select from the "search criteria" box), the basic windows in which you enter your search terms are in a line across the top of the screen. If you continue looking to the right along that line, past the SEARCH and RESET buttons, you will see the ADVANCED button. By clicking on that, you will display additional fields that can be used to narrow your search.

REFRESH your browser: If you use the bookmark or follow your usual link to the search function and can't reach it, try clicking on the "refresh" button on your browser before clicking on the link. To speed up webpage retrieval, most browsers store a copy of the page you visit on your own computer. That way, when you call for that page again, your computer can retrieve it directly from storage rather than downloading it from the internet. This creates a problem when a change is made to a webpage. When you call for it, your browser will load the old version, not the new. When you click "refresh", it forces the browser to load the page from the internet so you pick up the latest version with all changes. Unfortunately, the "refresh" button is in a different place on each browser (i.e., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) and often in a different place on the same browser, depending on the version in use.

Classic MassLandRecords: The "old" version of MassLandRecords is still available, at least until January. To reach it, go to the main page of the "new" MassLandRecords and look for this language:

The Secretary of the Commonwealth has recently updated the website to streamline searches for its users. These changes provide you with quicker access to more information. We are eager to know what you think; please provide your feedback at registry@sec.state.ma.us. If needed, you may continue to access Classic Masslandrecords until January 1, 2012.

And click the "Classic Masslandrecords" link

New MassLandRecords: Registered Land

2011-09-30T15:30:00.003-04:00

The new masslandrecords.com becomes the default search site over the weekend. You'll still be able to click into the old version, but that will only be available until January 2012. The following is some info about the Registered Land search options on the new version.

Like any other search, you begin by positioning the cursor over the "Seach Criteria" link on the upper menu bar. The choices for Registered Land are:

Name Search
Book Search
Certificate Search
Document Search
Property Search
Recorded Date Search

Name Search and Property Search work similarly to those functions in Recorded Land (which I wrote about HERE). Certificate Search is unique to the Registered Land application and is very useful when you already have the certificate number. It starts with a drop down menu for certificate types - blank means a normal certificate, "c" means a condominium certificate and "u" means a unit certificate. Most of the time you'll just leave that field blank. Then enter the certificate number and click "search."

All documents related to that certificate are returned as a result of that search. Click on any one of the documents to highlight it and then look to the right hand window of your computer screen. There are four options. The first (and default) is "View Details" which gives you all of the data about the document. The second tab is "View Images" which allows you to see the scanned image of the document you highlighted. The third tab is "View Certificate" which allows you to see the body of the certificate. The fourth and final tab is "View Encumbrances" which presents the entries on the memoranda of encumbrances that are found within the computer system.

Plans on the new MassLandRecords

2011-09-29T10:51:00.000-04:00

Sometime over this coming weekend, the new version of masslandrecords.com will become the default landing spot when you visit that site. The "old" version will still be available, but you will have to specifically click on a link to reach it and that will only be there until January 1, 2012 when it will be completely discontinued.

In a blog post last week, I offered some guidance on different ways to search for Recorded Land documents. Today, I'll write about finding Recorded Land Plans:

Start by moving your cursor over the "search criteria" item on the upper menu bar. That opens a window that contains all search options. Recorded Land Plans, simply labelled Plans, has six options

Name Search
Book (Year) Search
Document Search
Property Search
Recorded Date Search
Unindexed Property Search

The surest way to retrieve a plan is by its Plan Book and Plan number. If you know these numbers, use the Book (Year) Search option. The easiest way to find the Plan Book and Plan numbers is reading the deed or other document that contains a property description. If the parcel described is depicted on a plan someplace, it should be cited in there in the property description section of the document.

The plan index's Name Search and Property Search functions are not all that helpful because both are added to the index early in the parcel's development history. For example, the Name placed in the index will be of the person for whom the plan was prepared, assuming that's mentioned in the caption of the plan. That could be the XYZ Construction Company, for example, which would be a name way back in the property's chain of ownership and not one you would immediately search for. The Property Search function suffers from another problem. When a plan is recorded, we enter into this field the names of any streets depicted on the plan. Because subdivision plans are typically recorded before anything is built on the property, the numbering of the lots depicted on the plan has nothing to do with the number that becomes part of the street address of the property. If you're interested in 700 Main Street, for example, it's unlikely there will be any "700" in the index. The best you can do is search for plans for MAIN ST which might yield a dozen or more. Often you have to look through them all to find the one relevant to your search.

Recorded Date Search might have some utility if your deed refers to a "plan recorded herewith" but that doesn't give you the Plan Book and Plan number. In that case, just ascertain the date that the document was recorded then switch to this part of the plan index and make the search just that day, or a range of few days on either side of that day. The resulting set should include the plan of interest to you.

In a future post, I'll review some of the nuances of the system such as how to retrieve "M Plans" and other issues that arise outside the standard plans discussed above.

Who is Larry Ellison?

2011-09-28T10:12:00.005-04:00

Technology is a money maker...and many technology makers make a lot of money.

Of all the fortunes made in technology, Bill Gates made the largest. Once again Forbes 400 ranked the Microsoft founder the richest man in America.

How rich is Gates? He is $59 billion rich.

Sure most of us have heard of Bill Gates...but in the background is another technology maker worth billions of dollars also. That man is Larry Ellison the third richest man in America.

Who?

Larry Ellison is the founder and CEO of Oracle. Oracle is a powerful database system used by large companies including the government. According to Forbes 400, Ellison's net worth is $33 billion.

Ellison grew up on Chicago's north side. After he graduated from high school, he attended the University of Illinois but left before earning his degree to pursue his love of computer design.

In 1979 he founded Oracle and as they say, the rest is history...For the first seven years of its existence Oracle doubled in size every year, taking Ellison rapidly from millionaire status to a billionaire.

Ellison is very different from billionaire Gates. He leads a flamboyant lifestyle...

Ellison has been married four times, owns a $200 million yacht, owns numerous exotic cars, built a home worth $110 million and is a licensed pilot...AND he participated in winning the America's Cup in 2010.

When you think about it, this techie billionaire is not really less known because he is the third richest man in America as opposed to the first.

Four Techie Briefs

2011-09-27T08:56:00.003-04:00

Here are my four most interesting techie briefs for today:

Apple iPhone 5 will be revealed to the public on October 4 and according to everything I'm reading it won't be much different than iPhone 4...accept, and this is big, the new iPhone will run on Apple's A5 Chip which is much faster than its predecessor.

Google's new social networking service, google plus saw a huge 120o% spike in users last week. Of course, much of this increase can be attributed to the fact that last week was the first week the service was offered beyond invitation only.

There is another supposed "iPad killer" coming out. This time its Amazon trying and toppled the Apple giant. Amazon's new tablet, which is scheduled to hit the market September 28, is called the Fire. Why do some people think Fire may be THE iPad killer? Price!...rumors has it Amazon's tablet will hit the market for under $300, nearly half the price of the iPad 2.

And finally, the worlds largest internet search engine, google, turns thirteen today. Happy Birthday to a company that is changing the world.

Changes coming to Mass probate law

2011-09-26T15:09:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend I spoke with an attorney who had attended a seminar on major changes that are coming to Massachusetts probate law in 2012. Surprisingly, this was the first I've heard of these changes which have apparently already been enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor. I found THIS WEBSITE which contains the Massachusetts version of the Uniform Probate Code which I believe is the basis of the relevant statutory amendments. While these changes will have a greater impact on the registry of probate than on the registry of deeds, quite a lot of real estate changes hands through probate proceedings and so we'll have to fully understand the new law and its implications for us.

One new feature that will have a direct effect on the registry of deeds is something called a "deed of distribution." For a century or more, the documentary evidence of a change of ownership occasioned by a death has been the papers of the probate estate. Beginning in 2012, however, the personal representative of the estate (formerly called the executor or the administrator) will execute a document called a deed of distribution that will serve as evidence of the new owner's title. Presumably, that deed will have to be recorded here at the registry of deeds.

Here are two sections of the Uniform Probate Code that directly address this issue:

Section 3-907. [Distribution in Kind; Evidence.]
If distribution in kind is made, the personal representative shall execute an instrument or deed of distribution assigning, transferring or releasing the assets to the distributee as evidence of the distributee’s title to the property.

Section 3-908. [Distribution; Right or Title of Distributee.]
Proof that a distributee has received an instrument or deed of distribution of assets in kind, or payment in distribution, from a personal representative, is conclusive evidence that the distributee has succeeded to the interest of the estate in the distributed assets, as against all persons interested in the estate, except that the personal representative may recover the assets or their value if the distribution was improper.

Passports and the Registry of Deeds

2011-09-23T09:27:00.001-04:00

Several years ago the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds became a passport acceptance facility for the US State Department. Several of us went through the necessary training to become passport acceptance agents. As such, we were authorized to accept applications for new and renewed passports which we would transmit to a central facility for processing.

Being the entry-point for passports carries much responsibility. While the overwhelming majority of those filing applications are doing so for legitimate purposes, instances of fraud and wrong doing do exist and the consequences of a fraudulent passport being issued could be extremely serious. For that reason, the Passport Bureau provides excellent and intense training to its agents and oversees operations very closely. Those of us authorized to handle passport matters all took the training and all required refresher courses. It was time consuming but very interesting.

Through the years, however, the number of customers who used our passport service never grew very much, certainly not enough to justify the time we devote to staying current on providing the service. I think that's mostly due to the fine service provided by the Lowell Post Office's passport office which handles almost all of the passport business in this city. For this reason, we have asked the US Passport Office to withdraw the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds from its list of authorized passport agents and are now out of the passport business.

Boston Globe on refinancings

2011-09-22T14:28:00.000-04:00

A story by Jenifer McKim on the front page of today's Boston Globe explores all the reasons why so many homeowners are unable to take advantage of today's historically low interest rates by refinancing their mortgages. The two main reasons for this, according to the story, are a decrease on home values and a decrease in income of the borrower. Listening to the many attorneys who come here to the registry to record documents, I would conclude that a major reason that's only alluded to in the story is a very strict appraisal process that's now in effect. It sounds as if there are plenty of applications for potential refinancers, but most of those are not consummated making it likely that low-value appraisals are a big cause. As I've mentioned before, it's too bad that more refinancings cannot occur. Each presumable would lower the borrower's monthly payment which in turn would inject more money into the economy, making mortgage refinancings a type of low-cost economic stimulus program.

Apple iPhone 5 Coming Oct 4

2011-09-21T10:43:00.003-04:00

Finally... Apple has set a date to release the iPhone 5 (my wife needs one, not me).

Well, at least that is what "a source close to the situation" says.

According to the "source close to the situation" (I've heard of him/her before) Apple is unveil its new iPhone on October 4.

AllThingsD (the D stands for digital) reports that the "source close to the situation" claims that Apple is planning a big, big, big event for October 4. And the word is, (from, who else, "the sourse close to the situation") it not a birthday party for Steve Jobs.

And according to "the source", who by the way is close to the situation, Steve Job's replacement CEO Tim Cook will host the big, big, big event on October 4.

But the big question is, should you upgrade if you've own a properly functioning iPhone 3S or 4... the "source close to the situation" says yes! and here is why.

First, the new iPhone 5 will be driven by Apple's super fast A5 Chip which currently powers the iPad 2. Trust me, I've got one (well, my wife does) and this Chip blazes. Apple's new phone also boasts an 8 megapixel camera that produces high quality pictures and videos...And, our friend, the "source close to the situation" says the iPhone 5 is sleeker and more attractive than previous models.

BTW, if you happened to visit an Apple Store on October 4 and bump into "the source close to the situation" tell him/her I said, hi.

Navigating the "new" masslandrecords

2011-09-20T10:17:00.002-04:00

For quite some time, users of masslandrecords.com have had the option to use the "new" version of the system, but the "old" version remained the search screen. That will all change on October 1, 2011 when the two versions swap places and the "new" one becomes the default program. Users will be able to opt to use the old version, but only for 90 days beyond that since the old version will be fully retired on January 1, 2012. In preparation for these changes, I'm writing a series of posts about the new version.

The default search fields on the new version are a simple LastName - FirstName search. More search fields (date range, document type, etc) can be easily added by clicking the "Advanced" button to the right of the initial fields. However, "Name Search" is not the only way to query our records.

Within the "Recorded Land" category of the Search Criteria link (there are three other categories: Registered Land, Plans, and Registered Land Plans), there are nine separate searches. Here's an explanation of each.

Name Search - described above

Book Search - use this if you have the book and page number of a document, or if you want to see all the documents from a particular book

Document Search - use this if you have a "document number" (a/k/a "instrument number). When a document is recorded, it is assigned two identifying numbers: (1) a document number and (2) a book and page number. Today, our system assigns both simultaneously, but prior to 2002, the document number was assigned at the moment of recording and the book and page number was assigned some time later, when the actual book was being compiled. Sometimes you will just have the document number and not the book and page number. Please remember that document numbers are assigned sequentially throughout the year so a single document number might refer to multiple documents. To get the one you want, you will also need the year in which the document was recorded.

Property Search - This permits a search by street, street address, and town. It has only been since the mid 1990s that addresses were reliably placed in the registry index. (Title searches are based on owners' names, not property addresses) so searching by address may not be the most effective way to retrieve older documents. Also, current documents that have varying street numbers pose search problems. Many properties have addresses such as "12-14 Whipple St" for example. Yet if you search for "12 Whipple" you won't find documents indexed as "12-14" since that's not what you're asking the computer for.

Recorded Date Search - This allows you to retrieve all documents recorded during a set period of time and to limit those to a particular document type. For example, if you were interested in all foreclosure deeds recorded for Lowell during August, this is the search you would use.

Unindexed Property Search - Older documents that do not have a corresponding computerized index may be retrieved here by book and page number. At this registry, this means documents recorded before 1950 (and in books 1130 and below). These documents are not available on the "old" version of masslandrecords although they have been available on the lowelldeeds website using the "Books 1 - 2789" link. On the "new" version, just enter the book and page number of a pre-1950 document in this section to retrieve the image.

Unindexed Pre-1855 Books - This registry was created by the state legislature in 1855. The first document recorded that year was placed in Book 1. But documents for the towns in this district had already been recorded in Cambridge for the previous 200 years. In 1855, all previous documents for the towns in the Middlesex North District were recopied into a new set of books for each of the towns in the district. Therefore, to retrieve a document from before 1855, you need the book and page number but also the town in which the property was located.

Pre-1976 Grantor Index - The searchable Grantor Index at this Registry reaches back only to 1976 (we are currently re-indexing earlier years but they have not been fully verified) so to find documents recorded before 1976 it is necessary to use the old, paper-based Grantor and Grantee Indexes. Only the paper versions are no longer available. Instead, we have scanned those paper versions and make the scanned images of their pages available here. You can search these pre-1976 indexes just as you would the old grantor and grantee index books, only you do it on the computer.

Pre-1976 Grantee Index - Same as above for Grantor Index

Wall Repair Begins

2011-09-19T09:58:00.009-04:00

Over the past few years a water leak damaged several walls on the first floor of the Lowell Superior Courthouse. The leaks occurred predominately where the new/old granite-like building on Gorham Street meets the original building. Over the weekend workers began repairing these walls. This morning I took some pictures of the effected areas for archival purposes. The large patches of wall with exposed brick shows the first phase of the repair.

Mid-September statistics

2011-09-16T09:53:00.001-04:00

I'll take a break from talking about website features so we can take a peak at mid-month recording statistics for key document types. From September 1 through Sept 15, 2011, there were 175 deeds recorded, a 3% decrease from the 180 recorded during the same two weeks in 2010. The number for mortgages fell much more precipitously, dropping 27%, from 605 in 2010 to just 439 so far this month.

The good news is that foreclosure-related documents are way down. In the first half of September in 2010, there were 33 foreclosure deeds and 57 orders of notice recorded; so far this month there have been 14 foreclosure deeds and only 13 orders of notice, a drop of 58% for foreclosure deeds and 77% for orders of notice.

We'll have to watch these foreclosure-related stats very closely. Lately the mainstream media has been rife with stories about soaring foreclosure rates. I suspect such stories may be tracked back to the Warren Group which counts the number of new foreclosure petitions being filed in the Land Court. If these reports are accurate, we should see an uptick in order of notice filings in the coming weeks. I hope that's not the case, but we'll watch for it and report on it one way or another.

Some background on new Masslandrecords

2011-09-15T14:49:00.000-04:00

On October 1, 2011, the "new" version of www.masslandrecords.com will be the default page that appears when you visit that site. Users will be able to click into the "old" masslandrecords but that will only be available until January 1, 2012. For the next few weeks, we'll periodically write about the new version. Today's topic is why there is a new version in the first place.

This registry was the first in the Commonwealth to utilize the ACS 20/20 Land Records system. It was deployed here in the summer of 2002 and sequentially rolled out to many other registries after that. The ACS website, which quickly became known as masslandrecords.com, arrived in 2003. Our users, who had become quite comfortable with the in-the-registry Public Access version of the 20/20 system, expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the web version. The single biggest complaint was that the web version did not have the functionality of the in-house version. The request was that we make the website more like the in-house search system.

While I found the web version to be both useful and functional, I also agreed that it would be even better if it could work more like the in-house search system. Also, after fielding hundreds of calls and emails from infrequent users of the website, it was clear to me that a major obstacle for novice users was the number of data fields presented on the initial search screen. To many novice users, blank data fields impliedly required data and so they tended to overpopulate their search queries which often eliminated the entries they sought.

In early 2007, registry representatives met with ACS to discuss a new version of masslandrecords, we asked for two things: (1) to make the web version work more like the in-house 20/20 search system; and (2) to make the initial screen confronting users with a very limited number of fields - just first and last name for instance - in a kind of "basic search" function that would not lead astray novice users, but to provide easily accessible "advance search" features for regular users.

Unfortunately, it took more than two years for the "new" version of masslandrecords to be made available to us and when it finally did become available, its speed of performance was horrendous. The speed problem took a while to sort out but it was solved and based on months of regular use by me and the other registry employees who have been using it, the speed of the "new" version matches or exceeds the "old" version.

The long delay in fielding the new version had another consequence: the same registry users who had so vehemently complained about the old system when it first came out had, through long usage of it, grown quite fond of it and forgot why they had asked for it to be changed in the first place.

I anxiously await January 1, 2012, the date the "old" version of the system goes away for good. In my sixteen years here at the registry I have learned that when our customers are given a choice between the familiar and the new the familiar always wins. But I've also learned that as soon as the "new" becomes the only option, it rapidly becomes familiar as well and the angst and anxiety fade away. In the meantime, we'll do our best to ease the transition by offering explanations of how the new version works and answering specific questions that arise.

Windows 8

2011-09-14T09:57:00.003-04:00

Windows 8 is coming soon. Here is what Microsoft has to say about it...the next generation of Windows, internally code-named "Windows 8," for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

Below is a sneak preview of the new operating system.

Changes to "masslandrecords.com"

2011-09-13T10:34:00.001-04:00

If you click on the yellow "search" box on www.lowelldeeds.com, a search window from the Middlesex North section of www.masslandrecords.com immediately opens. At the top of that new page, you now see the following:

Try the New Masslandrecords.com*. This new search will become the default application on October 1, 2011.
The platform for Classic MassLandRecords.com will continue to be available until January 1, 2012, at which time it will no longer be supported.

The "New" masslandrecords made its premature debut about two years ago. When it was first rolled out it had a number of problems, the most serious of which was unacceptably slow performance. Those problems have all been fixed, however, and the "new" system has been available to all who opt to use it for nearly a year. During that time, we here at the registry of used it extensively and find it to the "old" version in almost every respect.

As the above notice makes clear, the "new" version will be the default search program beginning October 1 and will be the only search program as of January 1, 2013. I urge you to make the switch now and begin using the new version of the site. There undoubtedly will be a learning curve, but there's no turning back so you might as well get started now.

In the coming days, I'll be writing more about the various functions of the new site and will provide what hopefully will be some helpful hints about its use.

e-reading

2011-09-12T10:11:00.004-04:00

Last month I entered a new world in digital information. My family gave me an e-reader for my birthday. How they knew I wanted one is beyond me...maybe they got the idea when I saw an Ad on TV and screamed "I want one of those!".

Well I got one and I love it. It is lightweight, easy to hold and convenient.
How convenient?

Let me tell you a story...the other night a friend of mine was explaining how he was waiting for a book he had purchased to arrive in the mail. I said, "What, why don't you get an e-reader. You can download a book quickly whenever you want". I took my e-reader out and demonstrated. I picked a book I'd been wanting to read and downloaded it. To be honest I was amazed myself at how fast the book downloaded. The person I was with was shocked..."Are you kidding, you mean now you have your book and can read it? Just like that! And I'm still waiting for the book I want to be mailed to me. Wow".

And me I'm lucky to have an iPhone and an iPad too (more gifts I got with a little hinting). I downloaded my e-reader's App to these and now I can also read my book on these devices. The program even remembers where I left off from device to device.

I know sometimes I get carried away, but I wonder if it is only a matter of time before the printed book succumbs to the electronic page.

Remembering September 11, 2001

2011-09-09T08:45:00.002-04:00

This Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that transformed America. In the days following that event, we took some newspaper clippings and made a poster that could be brought out and displayed each year as a reminder of what happened. Here's a sampling of the headlines from the articles we preserved:

"US Attacked: Hijacked jets destroy twin towers and hit Pentagon in day of terror" New York Times, September 12, 2001
"Unthinkable: Terror attacks in New York, Washington topple World Trade Center towers, slam Pentagon" Lowell Sun, September 11, 2001
"Victims of the Boston flights"
"Fire Department Learns Cruel Toll: 350 Comrades"
"Entire Nation on High Alert as Security Is Stepped Up"
"Bush leads prayer, visits aid crews; Senate, 98-0, backs use of armed force" New York Times, September 15, 2001
"Entire nation on high alert as security is stepped up"
"US jets pound front-line Taliban"
"2 workers die and 2 are ill at Capital's postal center; inhaled anthrax indicated"

and much, much more.

Apple after Steve Jobs

2011-09-08T09:12:00.002-04:00

Many years ago when I came to the PC v Apple fork in the road, I chose the PC, probably because it was cheaper, used more widely in the business world, and trying to figure out DOS left me nostalgic for my days assigned to a code breaking unit in the Army. More recently, however, I've opted for two revolutionary Apple products, the iPod for my music and the iPad as my PC substitute. Both work very well, are elegantly designed, are a pleasure to use and, compared to the other similar products out there, worth the premium price you pay. Perhaps more revolutionary than the devices themselves, however, is how they employ the Apple iTunes store to make recurring sales to you, first of music and now of content previously printed on paper or recorded on tape. If you think about the disruption that the internet brought first to the music recording industry, then to the newspaper business, and now to book and magazine publishing, you realize that Apple solved the riddle of how to get paid for all that content when delivering it via the internet. Certainly the producers don't get paid as much as they did before, but they were on a trajectory to be put completely out of business so what they have no has to be better for them.All this technological, cultural, and societal change has been guided by Steve Jobs. Now that he's retired, we have to ask whether Apple's track record of innovation will continue or whether it will join the rest of the pack that looks backward more than it looks forward.

Courts to reduce public access

2011-09-07T10:01:00.001-04:00

In a sign of these difficult economic times, the Massachusetts Trial Court announced yesterday that it would be curtailing the hours during which many of the state's courts would be accessible to the public, both over the phone and on a walk-in basis. For example, all Probate Courts will stop waiting on customers and stop answering the telephone at 3 pm each day. Similarly, many district courts, including those in Lowell and Lawrence, will cut back on the hours they are open to the public. This does not mean that the court employees will work less time. Instead, they will use the non-public time to catch up on necessary paperwork such as docketing new pleadings and filing papers. Both of these things may seem trivial by themselves, but without them being done in a timely manner, the efficient operation of the courts and all who use them is greatly reduced. There is no comparable measure being considered for the registry of deeds. A down economy may cause an increase in court activity (especially for criminal law and divorce) but it tends to create a lull in the real estate market, so we've been quite capable to keeping up with all new recordings.

Is survival of US mail at risk?

2011-09-06T09:47:00.003-04:00

While in Washington this summer I visited one of the lesser known places of the Smithsonian system, the National Postal Museum, which is located right across the street from Union Station. The Postal Museum is small by Smithsonian standards, but it's an amazing place because it succinctly tells the story of the development of the US Postal Service from colonial times until today. Despite it's long history, the USPS faces dire times. A story in this Sunday's New York Times business section reported that unless Congress acts soon, the postal service may have to close entirely some time this winter. With our government's recent track record of difficulty in agreeing to anything, the chances of this shutdown occurring would seem anything but remote.The plight of the post office has two main causes: a drop in the volume of service and a rise in the cost of providing that service, however, diminished. A recent proposal by the Postal Service to pare costs by eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing 3700 post offices, and laying off 120,000 employees (1/5 of the entire workforce) has met with strong opposition from many quarters. While I really doubt that the Postal Service will come to an end, an extended stoppage wouldn't be out of the question and a greatly changed method of operation will likely occur. Much of the Postal Service's problems can be traced to the "disruptive innovation" of the internet which has undercut the core business of the post office. Unfortunately, cutting back on service will surely push more people and more functions to other methods of delivery. For instance, many of the documents we receive for recording come to us via the USPS, but the customers sending those documents could just as easily record them electronically. The same is true for the receipt and payment of bills, both for businesses and for individuals. Electronic bills and payments are widely available and accepted although not all that many people use them but it wouldn't take much for all of those people to make the shift. An outage of regular service would do it. The same dynamic would probably occur with magazines. Most everyone who subscribes to them has a computer or an iPad which can present these publications just as well as paper (although they do take a bit of getting used to). Perhaps the entity that would be most harmed would be junk mailers and that wouldn't be so bad, after all.

Feds to sue big banks

2011-09-02T12:35:00.001-04:00

Next Wednesday it will be three years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Because that same three years might represent the statute of limitations on some claims for fraud or deception in the real estate financing industry back then, the United States government, on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is expected to file suit today or Tuesday against several major banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. The allegation is that these banks misrepresented the quality of mortgages that were packaged up into bonds and sold to investors. It's hard to believe that there's finally some action on these matters. To me, the biggest obstacle to the claim would be contributory negligence by the plaintiffs since I believe that almost everyone had hands in the cookie jar. Amazingly there are those who now say that notwithstanding any wrongdoing done by the banks several years ago, to hit them with mega-judgments now would be bad for the economy. That's a bit like saying that someone who robbed a bank years ago should not go to jail now because there would be no one to support his family.Whatever the outcome of this litigation, I hope the discovery process discloses much that until now has been undisclosed about the actions and thought-processes of major US lenders during the run-up of housing prices in the middle of the last decade. An accurate history of what really happens still needs to be written.

August statistics

2011-09-01T12:26:00.003-04:00

At the end of each month we review the recording statistics for the month and compare them to those from the same month a year ago. In August 2010, there were 437 deeds recorded; in August 2011 there were 474 which is an increase of 14%. In August 2010, there were 1235 mortgages recorded, in August 2011 there were 928 which is a decrease of 25%. In August 2010 there were 61 foreclosure deeds; in August 2011 there were 40, a decrease of 34%. In August 2010, there were 116 orders of notice recorded; in August 2011 there were 56, a decrease of 52%.As for year-to-date statistics, from January through August 2010, there were 3575 deeds recorded. For the same eight months in 2011 there were 3370, a decrease o 6%. From January through August 2010, there were 7580 mortgages recorded. For the same eight months of 2011 there were 6903, a decrease of 9%. From January through August 2010, there were 462 foreclosure deeds recorded. For the same eight months of 2011 there were 279, a decrease of 40%. From January through August 2010, there were 818 orders of notice recorded. For the same eight months of 2011 there were 501, a decrease of 39%.

Generators and power outages

2011-08-31T14:28:00.002-04:00

Widespread local power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene were a reminder of how dependent we are on electricity. Whether it's heating, cooling, refrigeration, communications, entertainment or computer usage, so many key elements of our lives grind to a halt when the power goes out. The question becomes, how much time and effort would be appropriate to expend on preparing for a scenario that happens only occasionally. In the abstract, it's easy to answer that question, "not much" but when you're the one with a refrigerator full of spoiled food, the calculus changes. While the registry certainly requires electricity to operate, today I'll focus on the issues of losing power at home.

A generator seems like the most likely solution but that gets pretty complicated. First you have to decide what appliances you desire to run and then calculate the wattage needed. The simplest setup would be to run an extension cord from the generator - which must be outside when operated - to the appliance to be powered up. That may be a good way to run a sump pump or even a refrigerator, but not much more. There are only so many plug outlets on a generator. A more elaborate solution is to have an electrician install what's called a "transfer switch." This allows you to disconnect the circuits that power certain appliances from your home electrical system and power them completely by plugging the generator into a box installed on the outside of the home. Trying to power the entire house with a generator without the use of a transfer switch is extremely dangerous since power can migrate through the home system up into the outdoor power lines posing an extreme hazard to utility workers.

The most sophisticated approach would be to install a natural gas powered generator that is totally integrated into the home electrical system. This device resembles a central air conditioning unit and can be programed to immediately begin providing the home with electricity when the normal source of power is disrupted.

Most power outages around here last only a few hours, nothing anyone could not endure. But at times, like in the aftermath of the hurricane or back in December 2008 after a severe ice storm, the power has gone out for days at a time. It is for those occasions that a backup electrical system would really be needed.