Bossman's Blog

Energy innovation and technology continues to create thousands of much-needed jobs all across the Commonwealth and in southwestern Pennsylvania in particular. But could opposition from environmental groups and the prospect of politicians seeking new sources of tax revenue slow or perhaps even sta...

Well, the 'net is buzzing once again with news of the latest screw-up by Bank of America. Seems that they took possession on the wrong house...again. My question is: how does a thing like this keep happening with the same company over and over again?This time, it's Angela Iannelli of Gibsonia, PA...

A recent local news item provides the perfect illustration of why the proper evidencing and reporting of title to real estate interests is so important to our fundamental rights as well as to our regional and national economies.  A local businessman is filing suit against Allegheny County, PA, cl...

In the current market, we all do what we can to generate business for ourselves, and sometimes it's tempting to promise more than we can deliver.  I believe that in the long run, however it can backfire when we are unable to deliver.  A while back, I received a search request in an email from a c...

Realizing that this is not exactly a real-estate related post, I feel compelled to remind everyone (myself included) that Memorial Day is about more than just the "unofficial start of summer" or having the day off for a backyard barbeque.  As we pause to reflect upon the sacrifices of our militar...

I've been meaning to give my review and commentary on an interesting piece from here in southwestern PA that came out a few weeks ago.  Seems that a couple from Franklin Park, PA, (a suburb just north of Pittsburgh) has filed suit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court against Google, Inc., alleg...

While perusing some of the local online publications, I ran across this article by Ron DaParma, Real Estate Reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:Pittsburgh region sidesteps much of subprime stormThe Pittsburgh region isn't at the top of the list of U.S. cities stung by mortgage foreclosures...

The recent news that the passport files of the three presidential candidates, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have been accessed by contract employees of the State Department has brought the issue of information security and personal privacy to the public's attention...

"It is a common misconception that easy access to public records has facilitated other types of fraud, identity theft, or land fraud."That's the assertion set forth in a white paper authored by members of the Property Records Industry Association entitled, "Privacy and Public Land Records: Making...

As a result of the efforts of ActiveRain All-Stars like Ed Rybczynski, Fran "the Title Man" Gaspari and Lenn Harley, AR members and visitors are being made aware of the risks that real estate buyers are being exposed to by Big Title's ever-increasing reliance on offshore "thin" title plants and o...