Property Info Search

There is a wealth of on-line info, but sometimes it is difficult to get to. After much trial and error, I figured out how to look up public information for properties here on Pine Island Florida. This will be a handy cheat-sheet for others as well as myself.

So, most often all you have is an address. First thing to do is go to the Lee County FL tax records and pull up info for that address. You could google for the hyperlink or just use this link:

https://www.leepa.org/Search/PropertySearch.aspx

you will get a page like this (click on image to enlarge):

I’ve already added an address. Note that I’ve left a lot of info out of the address. This is because the database search looks for an exact match, but it’s not all inclusive. So it doesn’t care that you’ve left stuff out, but if you type in additional details but they don’t match what’s in the database, you will come up empty on successful hits.

OK, so I hit the search button for the info that was entered in on the form I showed you. Here is what I got:

Again, click on the image to enlarge. But already we have a bunch of info. There’s the owner names and their home address. On the left is the property code number. Over on the right are links to a bunch more info. I’ll leave the rest for you to discover by following those links.

In the above discovery you should find a pdf file showing the deed transactions. You will likely want to dig deeper into the county records to find such things as mortgages and easements, etc. Now that you have the owners name, you can go the Lee County FL Clerks site to get this.

Here is the link:

http://www.leeclerk.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B96F969B9-FB1B-47E9-A458-0F4C0739A2AC%7D

You’ll get a page like this:

Click on the box where it says, “Click here…”. You’ll get this disclaimer.

Click on the accept and you’ll get this fill-in page:

I’ve already filled in the box with the last name and first name (without commas) and here is the result:

click on the name in any line to get that particular info (etc).

Strip Built Kayak Project

I built this when I was living in Maryland’s Eastern Shore back in March 2015. Here is a Youtube video of the first test.

Wow! It turned out really nice and it handles extremely well and is easy to paddle. You can click on the image on the right to enlarge.

How Come?

How come WP doesn’t show publication dates? 20150120

(Edit 20180430) Oh! OK, I guess it does now. But it wasn’t showing up back in 2015 but must have been recorded in the archival database.

Garage Siding Project

It was a rough winter. ‘ Was frosty out last week almost every morning. This week, spring warmth finally busted out with record highs in the 80’s. It was like a flip of the switch.

So now I am going full tilt on catching up on my garage project. Here’s a picture of the siding I am installing. It’s cement board siding – not the easiest thing to work with. But I am thinking it will be way more durable than vinyl and easy to paint. I am face-nailing it so it’s more hurricane proof. Last year during Hurricane Sandy, there were a few houses in the neighborhood that had the siding blow off.

I’m pretty excited about this. Cutting it is easier than I imagined. You just score it with a sheatrock knife and pop it apart at the score just like sheetrock. Supposedly you can install it with an air nailer, but I don’t want it too tight (like it to breath) and also I don’t want to risk cracking it. So I just use a small masonry drill bit and pre-drill all the holes and then hammer nail it. Seems crazy, but it goes pretty quickly.

Record Cold

Wow! It’s very cold out. This is about the coldest it’s been since I’ve bought this place. Last winter was quite mild from what the neighbors have told me. It snowed about 4 inches of fluffy snow night before last.

‘Got the woodstove cranking up the heat. But only use it in the morning, and just bundle up at night.

Here’s a photo of the snow I took yesterday.

;

20130125

The Race to the Bottom Goes Global

It seems funny, but you’ve heard the saying, “fighting fire with fire”. We had a Great Recession who’s root-cause was a result of gov’t encouragement for affordable housing for all. The net result was an overburden of debt for a multitude who could ill afford it, and inevitable this led to the big collapse. Now our gov’t leaders are saying that we the people have to take on unlimited Gov’t debt to cure the economic hangover. ‘Not sure I agree…

The debt binge leading up to the Great Recession pushed housing prices to unsustainable levels. The updraft price instability in real estate had a ripple affect on commodity prices as well. Maybe you recall the big run up in the price of oil to $140 per barrel. Then the bottom fell out and the roller coaster plunge was even more dramatic. Not only was real estate rocked by price instability, but oil went from $140/barrel to $30 in a very short period. I blows my mind to think of it.

In order to correct the situation, or Federal Reserve Bank brainiacs say they need to bring about financial stability by actively and aggressively supporting big spending by our Gov’t. They’ve declared an unlimited war on deflation and are buying up US Gov’t debt by the truckload.

But does anyone wonder how they are financing this adventure? Maybe an even more pointed question would be: Do any of our leaders know what a balanced checkbook is, or do they think it’s all currency is just funny-money? What I learned in Econ 101 is that our financial system is in reality funny-money, and Gov’t debt is ultimately paid for by inflation. But on the other hand, and especially for those who have been through the 70’s and 80’s, a little inflation goes a long way.

Now back to the theory of fighting fire with fire. I think it’s a very poor analogy. It seems more like a situation comparable to binge drunk-a-thon being cured with a tail-of-the-dog binge-a-thon. Those who are driving Fed policy obviously think that the printing press is infinite. Our leaders (along with Paul Krugman) believe that the power of the press has the ability to overcome any adversity. THEY ARE WRONG! They are doubly wrong because they are trying to fix a train wreck by piling another train wreck on top of what was done.

The US economy was trashed by foolish policy. Now they are trying, with continually increasing desperation, to wreck our US currency in order to artificially buoy our economy out of the damage that was done in the past. But this process has dire consequences for our global neighbors. For every percentage point we force our currency lower, it shackles our neighbors with a corresponding percent of deflation. So it wasn’t long before the European Central Bank was trying to trash the Euro. Now we are in what’s called a race to the bottom. It’s like we are all in a big hole and clamoring over one another trying to get out. The Federal Reserve Bank and the European Central Bank are committed to seeing who can outdo the other by using (we the peoples) currency as a weapon of mass destruction. Not that alone, but to make matters worse, the last bastion of conservative culture has now joined the fray – JAPAN!

Link to Financial Times Report on BOJ policy change.

So here we are with a race to the bottom that’s finally gone global. I suspect that Paul Krugman is jumping for joy and will be the life of the party tonight. He thinks that we conservatives are waiting for the train wreck that will never happen. How can people be so foolish? It’s like our nit-wit leaders trying to leverage wealth in the foolish dream that it’ll eventually make us all wealthy. All they will manage to do is destroy wealth and make us all poor. Lord help us! Or should I say: Put not your faith in Man…

New Way to Edit My Videos

This Ipad is so handy. I bought an SD gadget to import pictures and discovered it will import videos from my digital camcorder (Aiptek A-HD). I stumbled across a cool video editor for the Ipad “AVID”. It was only $4.99 (a fraction of the cost of computer software). It is so handy and easy to use. So now when I shoot a video, I load it to the Ipad, edit the clips and either merge into a finished Youtube clip, or load the clips into my desktop and use DVDStyler (Linux) to assemble the video clips into a DVD.

Improved Tap Water

I made a Youtube Video (on how to improve your tap water) on how to get rid of the chlorine before filtering your tap water for drinking. Sure you can just filter it directly out of the tap, but it eats up the filter prematurely and cuts down the chlorine contact time.

Red Wine Recipe

I added a recipe for red wine.

Red Wine Recipe Link

Ipad vs Laptop

I just got this new Ipad 2 a few weeks back. My laptop is on it’s last leg since the hinge is broken and the display screen is about ready to fall off.

It took some getting used to ’cause this is my first apple device. But I really like it. It’s quiet, reliable, energy efficient, secure, smooth operating, and high quality. The big plus it that it charges from a USB power supply. This means cigarette lighter recharger. Why such a big deal with this? The sailboat!

Sailboats are very limited in power availability. I hate using my laptop on the boat ’cause in order to use the 12 volt power, you need a converter. And these darned laptops are very power hungry. If you forget and leave it plugged in it’ll eventually drain the boats 12 volt system. I hate starting the engine just to keep the silly computer running. What a waste!

This Ipad has a nice big screen yet if very frugal on power. I can download the free PDF nautical charts from NOAA. It’ll be great for cruise planning. Just to be safe tho I will still print out the necessary charts on hard copy for navigation. But I will use the Ipad for downloading the free Coastal Pilot books. I’m thinking of getting the Goodreader software so I can annotate the Pilot PDF files. Wow! This is golden!

I like these pad features so much that I bought a solid state drive for my desktop. But I am looking forward to the day when these smart little pads completely replace the laptop’s and desktops. Oh, by the way; my brother bought a droid pad. Hmm. Curious…