Cape Coral Real Estate

So, you have been looking to buy a home in Cape Coral for over 6 months now. There is something important for you to know.  Stop looking to buy a home right now.  You are wasting your time and energy. Cape Coral properties prices have been increasing for the last 6 months in a row. So, if you’re still looking, it’s not for finding the best deal of the century, it’s already too late. It has to be because you’re searching for the best floor plan or curb appeal possible, but then, the inventory is so wide, if you didn’t find it already, it’s because it doesn’t exist.

Not to mention all the time that is being wasted by professional lending and real estate brokers. They are not your taxi driver even if it’s my second job. They are not the ones to fix your poor credit scores.  They are not the ones to hold your hand every step of the way even if I do it on a daily basis.  They are there to help you not be taken advantage of by someone who is not committed to the home buying process.

Buying a home is a process and it doesn’t take over 6 months to complete.  A Realtor can help you with the home buying process, however, you the buyer must take action to make it become a reality.  Seeing every home that comes on the market for a year is insane!  It’s not that big of a deal to find the house you will come to know as home.  If you see a house you like and it’s within your means, then buy it.  Otherwise, go home and leave everyone alone.

You can read more at 1capecoral.com or in my blog. The time to buy a home was in the last 6 month, with a rock bottom price reached last December 2010/January 2011  or today…not in 6 months. Quit trying to out think the other guy or the sellers. Find what you like and buy it.  If there isn’t anything out there that you like then you probably are not going to find it.

Go home.  Stop wasting your time. Watch some football or NASCAR or a movie anything but get out of the home buying process as you are not a buyer.  You are a looker and you are frustrating people around you that can actually and willingly help you.

The time is ripe to buy a home today.  Interest rates are low.  Prices are still low. In most markets inventory is high.  Sellers want to negotiate on their homes. It’s easy and time for action. And if you think that a home priced below a car’s price is too high, you’ll never buy anything. So, do something else.

If you are angry right now…good.  Here is a way which may help.  Revisit why you wanted to buy a home in the first place and re-motivate or inspire yourself.  If that doesn’t work then forget about it.  You will never achieve your American Dream without concise methodical action on your part.  Now go out there and become a buyer and call me to seriously get started!

Comments (0) Oct 25 2011

Do you think you can write an offer on a Cape Coral foreclosure for sale without the help of an agent? The answer is a big YES!

If you think about it, my guess is you want to save the typical 6% commission that we make. If it’s the case, you are completely mistaken. First, our commissions are not set to be 6%. It’s negotiable. And in the foreclosure and REO world, it’s the bank that decides how much they really want to pay. Most agents doing foreclosure make about 1 to 2% of the closed price as the seller representative. So the buyer’s agent is really doing something like 2 to 4%. In that case, if you represent yourself for that foreclosure home purchase, you’re really saving about those 2 to 4% commission.

Now, prepare yourself to get an accepted offer on that Cape Coral foreclosure house for sale. You will need a few things checked with the listing agent, and I have been in contact with most of them, they use to be very difficult if they are not in front of another agent because they think they’ll have to do all the work believing that you won’t be able to do your part:

• What kind of paperwork do they want?  Typical is proof of funds, pre-approval letter from your bank, etc…
• How many offers are on the property? Maybe it is a multiple offers situation already.
• Is there a mandatory minimum MLS marketing time?
• How do they want to receive your offer?  Fax, website or email.

So, once you have all that done, you’ll be able to put a good offer but you will need to know something important: the price. Don’t google that. You will not be able to rely on sites like Zillow or Trulia for pricing. They are not accurate. Hire an appraiser instead, especially if you do not have access to your local MLS. The point here is that you don’t want to pay too much or too little. Too much and you may overpay for the property and too little,you may lose the home to higher bidder.

You can also read this buying a foreclosure in Cape Coral post for more tips.

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Comments (0) Sep 26 2011

I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the renting market versus the owning market. While the scene is in California, this can be very similar here in SW Florida and especially in Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.

Agustin Gutierrez, a construction worker from this town in the hills northeast of San Francisco Bay, lost his job in 2009, then, 10 months later, he lost ownership of his home.

Now, the husband and father of 4 rents the identical five-bedroom ranch from McKinley Capital Partners, an investment company that is at the forefront of a brand new breed of big-money landlords.
McKinley, which has acquired more than 300 foreclosed single-family houses in the Bay Area over the past two years, lately teamed up with Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, a new York hedge fund, with plans to buy at least 500 more foreclosed houses in the subsequent year. Those homes, too, will probably be rented to people like the Gutierrez loved ones.

Acquiring foreclosed homes as investment properties has long been dominated by mom-and-pop investors. But now hedge funds, private-equity firms, pension funds and university endowments are dipping into that market place. The attraction is double-digit returns at a time when most bonds along with other income investments yield extremely small.

Essentially the most well-liked strategy is for a large investor to team up with a neighborhood organization that scouts out houses and finds the renters. The hope would be to flip the homes within the future when prices recover.

“It’s kind of the Wall Street meets Principal Street phenomenon,” says John Burns, an Irvine, Calif.-based real-estate consultant who has discussed investing in single-family rentals with hedge funds. “The Major Street guys need to have the capital, and Wall Street requirements the expertise.”

At the finish of May possibly, 3.five million loans had been at least 90 days delinquent or in foreclosure, based on investment bank Barclays Capital. In the very same time, the country’s house ownership rate has fallen, to 65.9% inside the second quarter of 2011 from its peak of 69.2% in 2004, based on figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau final month. That drop has produced millions of new renters and helped push the vacancy rate for rental housing down by about two percentage points, to 9.2%.

“The single-family rental market is truly very large,” said Dennis McGill, director of investigation at Zelman & Associates, a study firm that follows the housing market place. “The average American says, ‘If I’ve got two kids and a dog, I can’t live in a one-bedroom apartment.’”

Zelman lately issued a report saying that in Arizona, Florida and Nevada, states hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis, the number of families renting a single-family house increased 48% from 2005 to 2010.

Huge institutional investors could eventually help stabilize the marketplace by soaking up the huge overhang of foreclosures, which could allow housing to begin healing. However, the number of single-family houses being bought by institutional investors is still small compared to the millions of distressed properties. The biggest players in the industry are deploying hundreds of millions of dollars, not the billions necessary to make a major dent.

The federal government has a significant role as well. The Obama administration is currently considering ways of selling foreclosed houses to investors who agree to rent them out. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration own a lot more than half of all unsold foreclosed houses.

Being a landlord can be a costly hassle for significant investors. Unlike apartment complexes, which concentrate hundreds of rental units in one place, investors must obtain hundreds of single-family houses that are miles apart, each with separate maintenance problems. Tenants can be troublesome.

“You could have a bad tenant who doesn’t want to pay their rent, or maintain the pool,” says Guy Johnson, an investor who buys foreclosed properties in Nevada, Arizona and California and rents some of them out. “A hedge fund manager doesn’t want to have to be their own plumber or electrician.”

Purchasing foreclosed properties isn’t easy either. Investors sometimes have to pay thousands of dollars in “cash for keys” payments to the previous homeowners in order to entice them to leave the property, and foreclosed homeowners often damage their houses before they are evicted.

Private-equity giant Carlyle Group LLC tried its luck with the single-family property market two years ago but abandoned the strategy late last year after concluding that the returns weren’t big enough. Carlyle’s method was different. The organization formed partnerships with nearby asset managers in California that bought and flipped houses, rather than renting them.

For now, a lot more investors are plunging into the single-family rental marketplace. McKinley, the Oakland, Calif., business that owns Mr. Gutierrez’s house, has already begun to use Och-Ziff income to purchase houses. Its model would be to acquire houses at an average price of about $100,000 apiece, put between $10,000 and $25,000 in renovations into them, and set the rental rate of the house so that it produces a return of 8% to 12% annually. This often works out to a rent of roughly $1,200 per month.

McKinley and Och-Ziff could see additional returns from selling the houses at a higher price after a few years, once the market place has improved. “Two years ago no one thought you could scale this business or that it could be institutionalized,” stated Gregor Watson, a principal with McKinley. “Now, you can get extremely good yields. It’s a quite good long-term strategy.” He declined to comment on the Och-Ziff investment. Och-Ziff also declined to comment.

Other significant investors have formed rental-housing partnerships.

G8 Capital, a private-equity fund based in Ladera Ranch, Calif., has bought 3,000 houses across the country since 2008, mostly to flip them. It decided last year to begin pursuing a hold-and-rent technique. It has since bought 250 foreclosed houses as rentals. Carrington Property Services LLC, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based property investment business that manages about 4,500 houses nationally, is in talks with investors to raise funds for a real-estate investment trust, to be called Residential National Trust, which would acquire foreclosed houses for rental. The company plans to purchase as many as five,000 far more rental homes in markets including Chicago, Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Waypoint Genuine Estate Group, an Oakland, Calif.-based firm, has bought 700 houses within the past two years as rental properties. Doug Brien, a former place kicker for the New York Jets who is now managing director of Waypoint, says that his company has approached pension funds, university endowments and big private investment groups about investing in his fund. In July, he says he closed on a financing deal from an Ivy League university endowment, but declined to name the university.

“At some point, there is going to be a shortage of housing,” Mr. Brien mentioned. “Everyone is realizing that single-family buy-and-hold is the way to go.”

In November, hedge fund manager William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP released a report arguing that single-family rental properties are an “under-owned asset class” that would make “an intelligent investment for institutional investors.” Pershing Square predicted that investing in single-family houses and holding them as rentals for 10 years could produce double-digit investment returns, even if U.S. residence costs only improved marginally.

All the activity is fueling a renewed debate over whether investors are good or bad for the housing industry. In the early days of the housing bust, some community groups discouraged banks from selling foreclosed houses to investors for fear they wouldn’t take proper care of the properties. Some communities riddled with foreclosed houses became slums.

Alan Mallach, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, argues that instead of running from investors, local governments should provide subsidies to investors who buy, rent out and are good landlords for foreclosed properties. “If a neighborhood has a high rate of residence ownership, that’s obviously better,” he stated. “But in some markets, there was so much inventory coming on the market place that the sheer number of properties was destabilizing those markets.”

Mr. Gutierrez, the Vallejo construction worker, now pays $1,800 a month in rent, compared to the $2,500 per month he was paying to cover the cost of his mortgage when he owned the house. He says it bothers him that he no longer owns his property, but is happy to pay less and says his new landlords are good property managers.

He bought the house in 2003 for $340,000 using a $322,700 loan. He refinanced the house 5 times, driving up the total amount of debt on the house to $400,000. He lost the house to foreclosure in 2009. McKinley paid about $155,000 for the house that year.

“It’s confusing, because sometimes I think it’s my house, but I have to remind myself that it’s not,” mentioned Mr. Gutierrez, who says he doesn’t plan to try to repurchase the house. “It’s sad, but it’s what happened to a lot of men and women.”

Comments (0) Aug 06 2011

I read a great news about a new concept of homes to be build in the Cape. It’s actually a home with $0 energy bill, and that’s attractive. Go green and keep it!

Many American have jumped on the “Go Green” idea inside the past couple of years. One Cape Coral builder says that although green is great, zero is far better.

Ravenwood Homes lately launched their series of Net Zero and High Performance Homes. The houses are aiming to either cut property energy costs by over 50% or cut them out fully.

Energy efficiency has been built into higher end houses for awhile, but Ravenwood Houses say they desire to offer those exact same power efficiencies towards the average buyer of 1,500 square foot houses too as the million dollar houses.

Ravenwood Homes partner Reed Schweizer says the company has been working on the idea for the past two years. Schweizer says like numerous neighborhood builders they had been working predominately remodeling jobs throughout the slow economy, but felt in order to remain competitive they needed to appear at the future of actual estate. Then 1 day Schweizer says he received a call from Dave Jenkins, “It was during that conversation with Dave we had what you’d call an “a-ha moment”. We had been talking about power efficiency and also the ‘green’ movement that has swept the globe over the past couple of years and thought why not take it to the subsequent level and appear at creating houses with minimal to no energy costs,” said Schweizer.

With energy expenses rising and seeing that chances of declining rates within the future were slim to none, Ravenwood began thinking about the concept of offering houses comparable to other builders with no energy costs, “We must change the way individuals feel when purchasing a house. Property buyers ought to not just take into consideration the expense with the residence construction, but the ongoing expenses soon after they move in,” says Schwiezer.

With that in mind the organization began working with their subcontractors to create houses that were power efficient in methods not noticed in this location just before. Adding solar panels, high efficient air conditioning units, high quality insulation as well as the actual design and structure itself the company feels it now has the ideal power effective houses.

The builder has developed the Net Zero Houses, which come with solar panels equipped and the High Performance Homes which don’t incorporate solar panels, but can be added at a later date for an additional expense.

The other aim of Ravenwood was to make the energy efficient houses and make them cost-effective towards the typical residence buyer. Energy efficiency has been built into higher finish houses for awhile, but Ravenwood Houses say they need to provide those identical energy efficiencies to the typical buyer of 1,500 square foot houses as well as the million dollar homes, “If it’s carried out the right way you wind up having a gorgeous property and no energy bill,” says Ravenwood partner Dave Wishtischin.

Spending two years developing the idea, the business has created six different models ranging from 1,750 square feet under air to two,680 square feet under air. Costs range from $212,400 to $334,529 for their High Performance Residence lines.

The firm says building the same size residence with an average builder will price exactly the same initial expense, but with a High Performance Residence, the typical energy bill will probably be $70 per month, saving the home buyer close to a $150 per month. The Net Zero house will have a $0 electric bill and save the buyer on the same property just over $200 per month. Savings that Schweizer says will give the organization the edge over a lot of other builders in this market place.

Thursday morning, two years of function and preparation came to reality, as the organization held the groundbreaking of its 1st Net Zero Home in south Cape Coral on Gleason Parkway, “We need to have a neighborhood impact and be a leader, it is time to begin building houses once more in Southwest Florida,” stated Schweizer during the groundbreaking ceremony.

Wishtischin says the power efficient homes will appeal not merely to nearby property buyers, but the European market place also, “Europeans have been utilizing power efficient construction practices for the last 20 years. They’ve come to anticipate it and we really feel this can be a specific draw to that marketplace.

When asked why prospective residence buyers really should seriously give Ravenwood’s new line of houses a critical look, Wishtischin provides up his advice, “You don’t wish to be the person who just signed a contract to build a residence utilizing obsolete construction methods.”

The company hopes to have the new home total by the finish of the year and says it really is already has interest from buyers in creating other people.

If you are interested to purchase a $0 energy bill green house in Cape Coral, feel free to contact me through my Go Green Properties in Cape Coral website.

*photo courtesy of Paige Wilson

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Comments (0) Jul 30 2011

I saw the big title in the newspaper today. There had been 656 foreclosure lawsuits filed in Lee County in October, the lowest range in a lot more than three years, according to statistics released Monday by the South West Florida Real Estate Investment Association.

It was a rare ray of hope in a grim situation: The Lee County and Cape Coral  foreclosure rate is normally within the top five metropolitan areas nationwide, with only Las Vegas consistently worse.

October’s variety is down 31 % from September’s 953. Yes, you read me: 31% less than the month before. The pace hasn’t been this slow since quite a long time.  555 had been filed in February 2007 as the wave of mortgage failures that followed the housing boom was just obtaining under way.

Experts stated that the decline likely was part of a long-term downward pattern — but that’s not all.

Foreclosures possibly plunged at least in aspect since for the past month, some banks have been holding off on foreclosures whilst they sort out issues including who truly owns the note and whether attorneys basically read all the paperwork, but the holding was only for 1 week and from 2 banks, including a major one though: Bank of America.

But the recent lender troubles alone couldn’t have caused a drop as sharp as October’s. Bankers “did knock some things out, but in the totality with the trend, no. 10 to 20 percent of your mortgages might be affected,” but not enough to account for the whole drop.

County Clerk of Court Charlie Green said that whatever the trigger, the downward pattern has helped whittle away at a daunting backlog of foreclosures within the court system: Public auctions disposing of properties are now outnumbering new filings.

Only about 14,700 cases are from the pipeline now, Green mentioned, down practically half from the 26,000 when the difficulty peaked at the end of 2008.

Still, he cautioned that there’s a substantial “shadow inventory” of houses that banks are selecting not to foreclose on. “I believe we’re clearing some out, but the banks are holding back.”

But we don’t really know how many far more. Next month will give us a better indication as to whether or not it was a normal trend or lenders stopping until they figure out what the issue with their process was.”

Also the pace of foreclosure doesn’t occur in a vacuum: if the winter tourist season is strong, it will reduce unemployment and keep far more people financially able to keep their homes, which is the case in South West Flroida, which include Cape Coral.

I think it will be only in April, May, June of next year that we’ll see how this season’s sales and the economic effect of your season influenced foreclosures.

A big builder in Cape Coral, stated that whatever the short-term pattern, foreclosures can’t sustain themselves at that pace. It’s going to sooner or later start slowing up. And I think it is happening right now.

Also, the issues with the foreclosure process have made some prospective buyers skittish about buying a previously mortgaged house.

However, while I find it easier to sell to prospective renters a house where owners are living in than a foreclosure, that  non distresses market has a hard time to compete with the foreclosures. Plus, new potential buyers have still a hard time to accept the fact that most of the time, there is a multiple offer situation on every foreclosed properties, ending by an accepted offer above the asking price. Often, those buyers go through a 3 step buying process. The first is the below asking price period where the buyer experience the frustration of being outbid. Then there is the full price offers period of time, which is usually shorter than the first one. Most of the time, the buyers learned their lessons and go the third period, the above asking price offers moment where they finally get a property under contract.

It’s now even more difficult with the decrease of the number of foreclosure and with a possible increase of pricing, even for foreclosures.

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Comments (0) Nov 02 2010

At the peak from the housing bubble, plenty of people today thought a house was the key to riches. Now they’re wondering if buying a residence even makes sense anymore.

You are able to get a residence at a bargain price now — particularly should you play hardball. This is a buyer’s market. Most of the other buyers have vanished since the tax credits on purchases expired.

We’re four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern U.S. history. And costs have come down a long way — about 30% from their peak, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices, which track home prices in cities across the country. Yes, it’s mixed. New York’s prices are down only 20%. Arizona’s have been halved.

Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You probably won’t catch the bottom, but it doesn’t really matter so much in the long haul.

You may get a 30-year residence loan for about 4.3%. What’s not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. As recently as two years ago, they were about 6.3%. That drop slashes your monthly repayment by a fifth.

If inflation picks up, you won’t see these mortgage rates again. And if we get deflation and rates fall further, you may refinance.

It is possible to deduct mortgage interest from your income taxes. It is possible to deduct your real-estate taxes. And you’ll get a tax break on capital gains — if any — when you sell.

Sure, you’ll need to do your math. You’ll get the income tax break only when you itemize your deductions, and you may be better off taking the standard deduction instead. The tax breaks are more valuable the more you earn and the bigger your mortgage. But many men and women will find that these breaks mean owning costs them less, often a lot less, than renting.

When you own, you’ll be able to have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You’ll be able to move the walls, build an extension — zoning permitted — or paint everything bright orange. Few landlords are so indulgent; for renters, these types of changes are often impossible.

Also, you’ll feel better about your residence in case you own it. Many years ago, when I was working for a political campaign in England, I toured a working-class northern town. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had just begun selling off public housing to the tenants.

“You can tell the ones that have been bought,” said my local guide. “They’ve painted the front door. It’s the first thing individuals do when they buy.”

It was a small sign that said something big.

In many parts of the country, it can be hard to find a good rental. All the best places are sold as condos. Money talks.

But this is really a case-by-case issue: In Miami right now there are so many vacant luxury condos that owners will rent them out for a fraction of the cost of owning. Generally speaking, however, in case you want a good home in the best neighborhood, you’re better off purchasing.

Although housing can’t entirely protect you from inflation, studies by professor Karl “Chip” Case, of Case-Shiller, and others suggest that over the lengthy term, housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year. That’s valuable inflation insurance, specially if you’re young, raising a family and thinking about the next 30 or 40 years.

In the recent past, inflation-protected government bonds or Treasury inflation-protected securities offered easier forms of inflation insurance. But yields there have plummeted of late. That also makes homeownership look a little better by contrast.

Your residence isn’t the stock market, and you shouldn’t view it as a way to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real-estate prices will head up again, too.

One lesson from the past few years is that stocks are incredibly hard for most normal individuals to own in large quantities — for practical as well as psychological reasons. Equity in a house is another way of linking part of your portfolio to the long-term growth from the economy — if it happens — and still managing to sleep at night.

If you are able to rent an apartment for $2,000 a month instead of buying one for $2,400 a month, renting may make sense. But will you save that $400 for your future? Most people won’t.

Once again, you have to do the math, but the part of your mortgage payment that goes to principal repayment isn’t a cost. You’re just paying yourself by building equity. As a forced monthly saving, it’s a good discipline.

There is a glut of homes in most of the country. The National Association of Realtors puts the current inventory at around 4 million homes. That’s below last year’s peak but well above typical levels and enough for about a year’s worth of sales.

More homes keep coming onto the market, too, as the banks slowly unload their inventory of unsold properties. That means great choice as well as great prices.

Demand and supply will meet. The U.S. population is forecast to grow by more than 100 million men and women over the next 40 years. That means maybe 40 million new households looking for homes.

Meanwhile, this housing glut will work itself out. Many of the homes will be bought. But many more will simply be destroyed — deliberately or by inaction. This is already happening. Even two years ago, when I toured western Florida, I saw bankrupt condo developments that were fast becoming derelict.

And, finally, a lot from the glut simply won’t matter to you. It’s concentrated in a few areas, such as Florida and Nevada. Unless you live there, the glut won’t have any long-term impact on housing supply in your town.

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Comments (0) Oct 19 2010

Lee Home Appraiser Ken Wilkinson is used to fielding complaints from people who think their home assessments are too high.

After all, a increased assessment translates into greater taxes.

But what a difference the housing crash makes.

Now some individuals have a new complaint: “My assessment is too low.”

“Before two years ago, I never got a call,” Wilkinson said. “This year I got two calls. They wanted higher value since they needed to sell it.”

The News-Press also received calls from individuals upset about low assessments since Truth in Millage Notices were sent out with house values and tax rates last month.

Things changed when property values fell sharply right after the residential real estate boom ended in 2006 and commercial house followed suit two years later.

On this year’s county tax roll, as an example, of properties the use of which hasn’t changed, 459,226 went down in value (compared to 2009); only 36,716 went up; and 22,525 stayed the same.

But those who wish to promote or refinance aren’t all happy about the declining values.

“Our lot is appraised at $18,000? That’s insane,” mentioned certified public accountant Leslie D’Alessandro, who with her husband, Peter, has owned a three-bedroom, two-bath house in Caloosa Yacht & Racquet Club along the Caloosahatchee since 1999.

The value of their property on the notice sent out by Wilkinson’s office last week was $169,279, which Leslie D’Alessandro also considers a lowball figure. It’s down from $282,020 in 2009 and $390,730 in 2008.

“It concerns me as far as homeowners insurance,” she said. “How much is the replacement value?”

Refinancing the home also would be more difficult due to the fact of the low assessed value, D’Alessandro stated, and selling would be even harder.

“I’m just glad we don’t have to sell our house,” she mentioned.

Wilkinson mentioned his hands are tied. Even though house owners would pay more taxes if their home were adjusted up in worth, state law requires he assess everything equally.

The notices sent out by the home appraiser every August also are not intended to reflect current worth, he stated; they’re based on comparable sales no later than the end of the previous year.

They’re also more conservative than a private appraiser’s estimate, Wilkinson said. Sales costs are deducted from the total figure, for instance.

Mike Hagen, an attorney who handles home tax value appeals, stated he hasn’t been asked to get anyone’s home value higher. But he said that typically he’d advise someone making the request to leave well enough alone.

Insurance companies and banks deciding whether to refinance don’t rely on the property appraiser’s figures to make their calculations, Hagen mentioned.

A larger assessed worth would help only when trying to sell a house.

“There’s no question a potential buyer may look at the house appraiser system, see what their opinion is,” he said.

Bill Davis thinks his house value is too low but doesn’t blame the home appraiser.
Davis, a retired banker who lives in Marietta, Ga., owns a unit in the Renaissance condominium on Winkler Avenue.

Over the past three years his assessment has fallen from $133,000 in 2008 to $76,430 in 2009 and $22,200 this year.

His unit is worth more than that, Davis stated, but lenders who are dragging their feet on foreclosures keep the complex in limbo.

Dominic Calabro, president of the Tallahassee-based taxation watchdog group Florida Taxwatch, stated there’s some concern about overly low assessed worth by commercial property owners.

“They have a myriad of different loans to support the activity and they’re often leveraged,” he said. “It does (cause problems) in the sense that it can affect whether you have a net loss of worth: whether the banks will continue to renew loans for the appraised value.”

But generally, Calabro said, it’s a perfect storm of low house values and a difficult lending environment that has some people today in denial.

“Florida’s seen some house tax declines once every 30 or 40 years,” he said. “It’s just we haven’t seen the decline in value at the same time as tight money.”

One thing remains constant, he said.

“Property taxes are a lot like the weather: Men and women are never happy with them,” he stated.

If you need more info about Lee County properties, feel free to check the Cape Coral Real Estate website

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Comments (0) Sep 07 2010

First of all, understand the short sales.

A short sale is a transaction that happens when a homeowner is owning more money on his/her home than what it is worth in today’s Real Estate market, and when the bank or the lender is willing to take less than what the homeowner owes.
Most of the time, that bank or lender will be able to collect more money with a short sale than if the homeowner goes into bankruptcy or foreclosure. That’s why they will be listening to short sales under certain circumstances.
For the homeowner, the short sale transaction is a better situation than going bankrupt or foreclosed. They credit will be hurt for 2 or 3 years instead of the 7+ years in a foreclosure situation.

Secondly, here are a list of documents you will need in order to prepare the short sale transaction with the bank representative:

FOR THE REALTOR:

• ~ Signed letter of authorization from seller authorizing you to negotiate with the lender on their behalf.
• ~ Letter of facts about the property. Everything that is wrong with the property and why it is impossible to sell it at a higher price.
• ~ Current Market Analysis. Highlight comparable sales that reflect the lower value.
• ~ Photographs. Remember, the photographs aren’t to highlight a charming house. Photograph evidence of damage, bad location, etc…
• ~ Evidence of all showings and feedback. Explain to lender results and conversations you’ve had while trying to sell the property.
• ~ Copy of listing contract/MLS Listing/MLS history.
• ~ Current “AS IS” CMA.
• ~ Copy of purchase contract if you have one.
• ~ Preliminary HUD
• ~ Make sure the seller has a detailed, tear jerking letter of hardship. See an example here
• ~ Sales and services Quotes

Also, insert copies of the following if any:
1. Code Violations
2. Fines
3. Hearing Information regarding the maintenance of the property
4. Evidence of lawsuits the City is filing against lenders
5. Evidence of pending litigation or changes in the law
6. Insert Tenant / Landlord provisions if it helps your case
7. Evidence of the town / city’s enforcement of fines against other banks
8. Latent Material Defect
9. Sexual offenders and predators

FROM THE SELLER:

-Two years tax returns and W-2’s.
-Three months bank statements.
-Pay stubs for last 30 days.
-Detailed monthly budget.
-All mortgages with account numbers.
-Copy of the deed.
-Copy of the note and/or mortgage
-Pending bankruptcy, or other action/judgment or lis pendens.
-Tear jerking hardship letter. See an example here

Buyers generally get a lot more house for their money in a short sale situation, because these properties are usually very competitively priced in order for the sellers to unload them before they end up in foreclosure. It’s a very good situation for them. The only downside I see is often the multiple offers situation for those short sale properties. But there are a lot of short sale properties available in the Cape Coral Florida market than in other parts of the country, so this area is the place to buy!.

So, if you are thinking of buying a short sale, here are 3 tips:

1 – Find a Realtor with short sales experience. There are many rigorous short sales and foreclosure training programs available to real estate agents, including the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) and the Short Sales and Foreclosures Resource Certification (SFR). If you wish to purchase a short sale property in Cape Coral, Florida, or anywhere else for that matter, you will greatly increase your chances of getting your deal to closing if your agent is experienced and comfortable with short sales….either through a short sales certification program, or through hard knocks experience in the field.

2 – Get pre-approved. No short sale offer will be considered without a pre-approval or a proof of funds letter. If you have not yet been pre-approved by a local lender and are not sure who to call, your real estate agent is a good source of referrals. The pre-qualification process generally takes less than 30 minutes, and can be done over the phone, however, a pre-approval takes longer but is better than a pre-qualification. Make sure you work with a local lender – today’s wild & woolly finance environment means that you greatly increase your chances of closing a deal if you use a local lender with a good reputation. All short sale offers must be submitted with a pre-approval letter, or with a proof of funds, as bank’s statements, in the case of a cash transaction.

3) Submit your highest and best offer the first time around! Lenders generally do not counteroffer….they will either say “Yes” or “No”. So if you are going to go through the process of waiting 60 days or more to hear back from the lender, you will greatly increase your chances of hearing that “Yes!” if you submit a good, solid offer with no contingencies.

Once you submit an offer that is approved by the seller, the seller has to submit your offer to their lender to see if the lender will accept the offer as well….remember, in a short sale situation the lender is agreeing to accept less than what the homeowner owes on the mortgage…..and the lender is going to do whatever they can to minimize the amount of that loss to their bottom line. Parting with their profits is not something that comes easy to lenders…..so it takes awhile to find out if they are willing to take the level of financial beating that is inherent in the amount you are offering. Sometimes the wait can be up to 90 days….sometimes much more (the amount of the wait often depends upon which lender holds the paper).

Look at the frustrating wait time as the price you pay for getting the chance to get a home you might not otherwise be able to afford.

If you want to receive listing from banks, this program will give tremendous help to get in the game as well.

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Comments (0) Dec 31 2009

As you may know, the first-time homebuyers’ $8,000 credit has been extended. I think it’s time to let you know what you should do before purchasing your first home.

1. Check the selling prices‘ of comparable homes in your area. Web sites like Zillow, Trulia or Homegain are not giving you an acccurate idea of what you should expect to pay. You can also do a quick search of actual multiple listing service, or MLS, listings in your area on a number of Web sites. The best will be to ask a Realtor® of course. Choose one that work in the area you are looking to buy.

2. Use a mortgage calculator to get an idea of what your monthly mortgage payments would be if you bought today. They are plenty of them online, just google it.

3. Find out what your total monthly housing cost would be, including taxes and homeowners insurance. In some areas, what you’ll pay for your taxes and insurance escrow can almost double your mortgage payment. Make sure you can afford that

To get an idea of what you’ll pay in insurance, pick a property in the area where you want to live and make a call to a local insurance agent for an estimate. You won’t be obligated to get the insurance, but you’ll have a good idea of what you’ll pay if you do buy. Just remember that exemptions and the intricacies of local tax law (like Florida’s Save Our Homes value cap) can create differences between what a homeowner is currently paying and what you can expect to pay as a new homeowner.

4. Find out how much you’ll likely pay in closing costs. The upfront cost of settling on your home shouldn’t be overlooked. Closing costs include origination fees charged by the lender, title and settlement fees, taxes and prepaid items like homeowners insurance or homeowners’ association fees. You can see what closing costs average here.

5. Look at your budget and determine how a house fits into it. Fannie Mae recommends that buyers spend no more than 28 percent of their income on housing costs. Go much past 30 percent and you risk becoming house poor.

6. Talk to a reputable Realtor® in your area about the real estate climate. Do they believe prices will continue falling or do they think your area has hit bottom or will rise soon?

7. Remember to look at the big picture. While a buying a house is a great way to build wealth, maintaining your investment can be labor-intensive and expensive. When unexpected costs for new appliances, roof repairs and plumbing problems crop up, there’s no landlord to turn to, and these costs and can quickly drain your bank account.

So consider whether you’re ready for the expense and effort of homeownership before pulling the trigger.

Then, prepare yourself for the hunting!

If the numbers make sense for you, taking a few steps at the beginning of the homebuying process can save you time, money and aggravation.1. Examine your credit. Right now, blemished credit or the inability to make substantial down payment can put the kibosh on your homeownership plans. That’s why it pays to look at your creditworthiness early in the home-buying process. Get a credit report and comb through it for errors and unresolved issues. If you find mistakes, contact the credit reporting bureau to make sure they are corrected. It’s also a good idea to get your FICO score, which will cost you a small fee.

2. Get your docs in a row. Collect pay stubs, bank account statements, W-2s, tax returns for the last two years, statements from current loans and credit lines, and names and addresses of your landlords for the past two years. Have them ready to show to the lender. This may seem like a lot, but in this age of tight credit, don’t be surprised if your lender needs a lot in the way of documentation.

3. Find lenders and get preapproved. Getting preapproved for a mortgage helps you bargain from a position of strength when you are house hunting. The institution where you bank and a local credit union are good places to start your search. Applying to multiple lenders in the same month helps increase your chances of getting a loan approved at the best rate possible without dinging your credit score too much.

4. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try … the government? If you can’t find a bank willing to lend to you — and in the current tight credit market, it’s possible you won’t — consider getting an FHA loan. The Federal Housing Administration has a program that insures the mortgages of many first-time homebuyers. As a result of this guarantee, lenders who might otherwise feel queasy about your qualifications will be more inclined to lend to you. As a bonus, the FHA only requires a 3 percent to 3.5 percent down payment from first-time homebuyers.

5. Finally, don’t forget about the first-time homebuyer’s credit. Get your hands on Form 5405 ahead of time and send it in with your tax return immediately after your home purchase to ensure you receive the $8,000 credit as soon as possible, especially since the credit is set to expire April 30, 2010 and you must close by July 31.

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Comments (0) Dec 07 2009