Tax time is nearing and once more rumors are circulating on the Internet and by e-mail that the health care reform law enacted two years ago includes a 3.8 percent transfer tax on real estate starting in 2013. That rumor is not true (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/Aje2JB

Home Sale Delayed as Occupy Members Protest Foreclosure Proceedings (via LoanSafe.org): http://bit.ly/Abw9gY

Lawmakers in Congress were debating a bill Wednesday that could allow commercial leasing of oil shale throughout the West (via ncbr.com): http://bit.ly/z70TjG

The Nevada Supreme Court waded Wednesday into the first of what may be multiple cases pitting homeowner associations and their collection agencies against buyers of foreclosed homes (via vegasinc.com): http://bit.ly/w8Wofa

Fighting HOA covenants an expensive mistake (via gazette.com): http://bit.ly/zC5XtR

Foreclosures Pick Up Pace, Banks Work Through Glut (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/w8vqPp

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it will soon be piloting a foreclosure-to-rental program, in which it’ll offer qualified investors the chance to buy a pool of foreclosed homes all at once as long as long as they agree to rent the properties for a specified period (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/zgCck3

“Mom and pop investors” are trying to capitalize on a depressed real estate market in the hopes of one day being able to cash in (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/yAU7Vd

The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board are moving closer, albeit slowly and with re-exposed drafts along the way, to their goal of new converged accounting standards for leases.  Although the two accounting-standards setters have re-exposed a draft, thus pushing the day of reckoning off, there is little doubt that it is coming (via globest.com): http://bit.ly/yfjieW