Brandon Jordan

DOR ISSUES SHORT SALES DOC STAMP RULING

The Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) issued a ruling late yesterday stating that doc stamp taxes owed on a short sale should be based on the sale price paid by the purchaser and not on the sale price PLUS any amount forgiven by the home seller's lender. DOR's ruling is effective immediately. A problem arose because Florida law does not clearly explain doc stamp fees on a short sale; consequently, local governments were making their own decisions and charging different amounts. FAR stepped in to officially request a Technical Assistance Advisory (TAA) from DOR, which would give Realtors a specific document that explains the short sale doc stamp procedure. "Just like Florida Realtors, DOR officials were concerned about how this issue could affect Florida homebuyers and sellers and its potential impact on the real estate market's recovery," says FAR Public Policy Representative Trey Price. "Advisories can sometimes take months or even a year before a conclusion is made, however, so DOR's quick decision illustrates their understanding of the importance of this issue." The TAA is available at http://www.floridarealtors.org/LegalCenter/HotTopics/index.cfm. Still have questions? Contact FAR's Public Policy Office in Tallahassee at 850-224-1400.

Florida Real Estate with Brandon Jordan, your Northwest Florida Realtor and ActiveRain featured Realtor for Okaloosa County since 2007. We provide this information and much more on our site for you at no charge, so please remember us when you're looking to buy or sell real estate.

Detached Single Family				.
MLS#:	496561m OfficeFile#:	ListPrice:	$175,000
Status:	Active	ApproxSF:	1,901 BG:
Address:	336 EGAN DR	$/Sqft:
	CRESTVIEW, FL	Bedrooms:	4
Zip:	32536	Baths Full/Half:	2/
County:	OKALOOSA	Stories:	1
MainArea:	25 Crestview Area	YearBuilt:	2005
SubArea:	02 CRESTVIEW SOUTHWEST	OccStat:	Occupied
Subdiv:	ANTIOCH ESTATES S/D 2	ImmOcc?	Y
ParcelID:	35-3N-24-0102-000B-0770	ConstrStat:	ConstrCmplt
ElemSch: NORTHWOOD Middle: DAVIDSON High: CRESTVIEW
Dir:	From Highway 85, WEST ON PJ ADAMS PKY., SOUTH ON EGAN DRIVE.
Legal:	LOT 77 BLOCK B ANTIOCH EST. PHASE II

Short Sale.

ALL BRICK HOME HAS THE POPULAR SPLIT BEDROOM FLOOR PLAN, MASTER SUITE WITH DOUBLE VANITY SINK, GARDEN TUB, SEPERATE SHOWER/TOILET AREA AND WALK-IN CLOSET. HOME IS ALL ELECTRIC, LAUNDRY ROOM LOCATED INSIDE, FORMAL DINING ROOM, WOODEN BLINDS AND A 2 CAR GARAGE WITH OPENER PLUS WOODEN DECK FOR RELAXING/ENTERTAINING. KITCHEN HAS BAY WINDOW TO CATCH THE VIEW AND LOTS OF CABINET SPACE. BUS ROUTE EXTREMELY CLOSE FOR SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN. OWNER WILL PAINT PINK BEDROOM AND YELLOW BATHROOM IF PREFFERED A NEUTRAL COLOR, HOME IS LOCATED ON A CUL-DE-SAC.

Florida Real Estate with Brandon Jordan, your Northwest Florida Realtor and ActiveRain featured Realtor for Okaloosa County since 2007. We provide this information and much more on our site for you at no charge, so please remember us when you're looking to buy or sell real estate.

In building value, how do you account for historical value? I do not know for certain but I have always kept in mind that pricing is an art, not a science. I would think you would go about it in much the same way as looking at a regular building's value.

    1. First, if possible, find a similar historical building in a smaller footprint, taking an estimate and multiplying with the decreasing factor of price per square foot with a larger footprint to get a starting basis.

    2.    Does the current owner have a business? Is there a "net sheet" (how much they make, in other words) and can that be continued with a new owner/

    3.    Is the building currently being used at its highest in best use?

    4.    Does the building have current tenants? What does that take in for the owner? What would a buyer be able to expect as an ROI (return on investment)?

    5.    Is the property a landmark?

You might ask, how could you prove a property has historical value? One way to show that would be to determine that it is in the National Registry of Historic Areas. That, I feel, would give you cause to show the property has historical value.

If the property is a landmark, on the other hand, I feel you would have to show that the property has impacted the surrounding properties in the area for the better over time. That could be accomplished in many ways and measured in just as many. That said, you could certainly say the property could bring tourists and traffic to a slow moving area for historical landmarks. Some things could end up just as important over time but not show as immediate an impact. One example would be to renew interest in the area by restoring an old historical building in an historic area which in turn could spur an association. As an example, in Crestview, Florida there is a Crestview Florida Main Street Association.

Florida Real Estate with Brandon Jordan, your Northwest Florida Realtor and ActiveRain featured Realtor for Okaloosa County since 2007. We provide this information and much more on our site for you at no charge, so please remember us when you're looking to buy or sell real estate.

The thermometer may be stuck on 90 degrees, but don't let the summer heat beat you out of a second crop of fresh summer veggies. Anyone who enjoys vegetable gardening should consider a second planting of the warm season species, and can begin preparing for establishing the cool season vegetables.  Our climate is such that something can be produced in the vegetable garden during every month of the year.   

The first round of summer vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, sweet corn, southern peas, snap beans, cantaloupes and eggplant were probably planted in March and April. The harvest on this spring planting is winding down.   But with Florida's subtropical climate, the summer gardening fun has only just begun. You still have time for another round of summer crops before the first frost. The first frost usually occurs around late November in Northwest Florida.   According to Terry Kelley, an Extension horticulturist with the University of Georgia, there are 110 to 120 frost-free days from late July until mid-November, so warm-season crops that mature in less than four months have time to produce, barring an early frost.   Many gardeners make several plantings throughout the year at various intervals to have new crops maturing periodically throughout the summer. Others try to maintain the first planting and harvest tomatoes, squash and the like throughout the summer.  

 Rather than trying to keep the same plants producing indefinitely, it is often better to start over after the first planting plays out. This usually results in better yield and quality.

  Don't, however, plant the same crop back in the exact same place. Rotate your garden space to reduce potential disease problems. For instance, plant tomatoes where you planted squash this spring.   Gardeners should also rotate families of crops. Plant peppers, tomatoes or eggplant where squash, cucumbers or cantaloupes were planted. But don't plant cucumbers on the same ground where squash was most recently planted.  

 Lima beans, eggplant, okra, southern peas, peppers and tomatoes can be started again in July.  During August plant snap beans, pole beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, southern peas, peppers, pumpkin and squash.  All of these usually have plenty of time to mature and bear before the first frost.   The cool season vegetables are often overlooked or planted too late to produce as well as they might.  Newcomers, especially those from a cooler climate, tend to plant these vegetables in the spring - which is a mistake.  In August plant broccoli, cauliflower, collards, bunching onions and turnips.  During September plant all of the above in addition to beets, cabbage, carrots, endive, escarole, lettuce, mustard, onions and radish.   Many gardeners who are unfamiliar with our mild winters seem to fear that the cool season vegetables will freeze if planted during late summer or fall.  This generally does not happen.  In fact, most of them thrive during our typically mild winter weather.

  Onions are a prime example of the need for fall planting.  They should be established by seeding or by transplanting so that plants are growing well by mid November.  If spring planted, onions will either produce a small bulb or a plant that resembles a giant "green onion", with no bulb.   Establishing the late summer crop will be more of a challenge than it was in the spring. There is more pressure from pests at this time of year, so insect and disease control practices must be implemented. Because of the intense heat, you'll need to keep the garden watered enough to reduce heat and drought stress.

Florida Real Estate with Brandon Jordan, your Northwest Florida Realtor and ActiveRain featured Realtor for Okaloosa County since 2007. We provide this information and much more on our site for you at no charge, so please remember us when you're looking to buy or sell real estate.

McCain, Obama on the Emerald Coast?

Local Republicans and Democrats brace themselves for a flurry of campaigning on the home stretch

September 6, 2008 - 6:00PM Andrew Gant, Florida Freedom Newspapers 

With convention season over and two presidential campaigns hurtling forward, the anticipation is building: John McCain and Barack Obama may target the Republican-heavy Emerald Coast in their battle for Florida.

Local party leaders say McCain could visit Okaloosa Island and Obama may be in Pensacola within the next two decisive months.

Why?

"I think we can turn Florida blue," Niceville Democrat Judy Byrne-Riley said Friday, looking ahead to a tall order of "harnessing the excitement that came out of the convention in Denver" and bringing it to Northwest Florida.

Meanwhile, her GOP counterparts said a Sept. 28 or 29 McCain visit could jolt his already-energized foundation.

"This week has really fired up the Republican base there in the hometown," said McCain delegate and Okaloosa County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Craig Otto, who was on a plane leaving the Minnesota convention just before 5 p.m. Friday.

"We needed the starter pistol," he said.

For years, the Emerald Coast has been a bright red streak at the top of a presidential battleground state.

But this year, an Obama campaign office with three paid staffers has opened in Destin. Workers there aim to tilt the county away from its presidential voting record - which includes heavy support of George W. Bush in 2004.

"I think it'll be hard for the Republicans to come up with ways they've helped the middle class," said local Obama campaign head Toni Craig.

"They're going to be hard-pressed to tell me, especially as a small business owner, how they've helped me in the past eight years."

Destin Democrat Charles Morgan, owner of Harbor Docks restaurant - which has hosted former President Bill Clinton, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and one-time vice presidential nominee John Edwards in the past - said Friday that he was working with fellow Democrats to bring Obama to Pensacola.

(The last time Morgan invited a McCain was when singer-songwriter Edwin McCain played at Harbor Docks in 2004.)

Morgan expressed "a real good chance" of Obama's Pensacola visit happening. His own restaurant just isn't big enough, he said.

Other Democrats say Biden's name also has been floated for a Pensacola trip. Potential dates are unknown.

On the Republican side, McCain's close friend and fellow Vietnam POW George "Bud" Day of Fort Walton Beach is organizing the late-September GOP rally at the Emerald Coast Conference Center.

Clearly, McCain tops the list of invitees, said Otto. It's still unconfirmed if he will attend.

Republicans also are rallying Oct. 4 at Liza Jackson Park.

National polls show a very close race between McCain and Obama, with each candidate benefiting from a "bounce" in polling after his party's respective convention.

In one Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday, McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was more popular with voters than McCain himself, Obama or Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Many users at nwfdailynews.com shared a high opinion of Palin's outside-Washington record and "hockey mom" image, bristling at what some have called sexist or personal attacks.

Meanwhile, another Rasmussen poll Friday showed 51 percent of voters believe reporters are trying to hurt Palin in their coverage.

"She is one very, very smart woman," said Niceville Republican Barbara Wall, one of several Florida delegates who crowded the convention floor waving an orange scarf for Palin's speech.

Byrne-Riley called Palin a "very accomplished and interesting woman," but said that picking Palin purely as a ploy to lure female voters would represent "an insult to all women" and "a sexist attitude."

Time will tell how voters interpret it, Byrne-Riley said. Both sides will be busy campaigning door-to-door and over the phone over the next two months.

"People are going to wake up," said Craig.

"We're looking forward to having our two mavericks in office," Wall countered.

----

They embody four uniquely American stories. They offer messages of transformation with two distinct world views. They pursue one goal.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama and their respective running mates, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, begin the final eight weeks of their historic and remarkably close presidential contest ready to rewrite national politics.

Race, gender and age barriers are at stake. A shifting political landscape will take the fight to previously ignored states. Advertising will suffocate the airwaves with intensely negative exchanges. Debates could be as decisive as the final Carter-Reagan debate of 1980. And more money will be spent by the hour in politics than ever before.

Armed with a bigger bankroll and a partisan Democratic advantage, Obama is competing in more states than John Kerry did in 2004, including typically Republican states like Virginia and North Carolina.

Soon, strategists predict, the number of states in play will narrow to nine or 10, resembling past elections with Virginia the new battleground in the mix.

As election day closes in, they say, McCain needs to shore up his position in previous Republican states and hope the only states left in play are Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

"Whoever wins two out of those three will probably win the election,'' said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who managed Bob Dole's 1996 campaign and is close to the McCain camp.

Obama and McCain march into the fall campaign with their parties newly unified - tasks they accomplished by each reaching out to a female political figure. Obama joined hands with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and sealed the deal with many of her supporters. But McCain's selection of Palin proved most stunning and has the potential to change the game.

Obama sits atop a mountain of advantages. President Bush and the Republican Party remain highly unpopular, Democrats have displayed greater intensity, Obama has expanded the electorate, and he has set huge records for political money.

McCain, however, has managed to remain far more popular than his party or his president. Independent voters and even some Democrats remain unsure about Obama, either because of his race or his rapid rise from obscurity.

And while Obama's election would represent a monumental milestone for the nation by putting the first black man in the White House, Palin gives voters a chance to make history, too, by electing the first woman as vice president.

The issues

The economy is a driving issue in the election and both candidates are making direct appeals to the working class.

"I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market,'' McCain said, using the kind of populist language usually heard at Democratic conclaves.

And Palin, upon introducing her husband, Todd, to the delegates, defied the party's antipathy toward big labor by describing him as "a proud member of the United Steelworkers' Union.''

"The underlying reality of this election is the nation is fundamentally convinced we are headed on the wrong track,'' said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser to Kerry 's 2004 campaign. ``The person who convinces people they are about change will win.''

In casting themselves as change agents, both candidates also are creating caricatures of each other. McCain brands Obama a mere "celebrity,'' and his ads say Obama represents "old ideas masquerading as change.''

Obama, in turn, ties McCain to the unpopular Bush.

"My friend John and George Bush are joined at the hip. And we need a hip replacement,'' Biden said Saturday while campaigning at a Philadelphia union hall.

The battlegrounds

Both candidates have targeted 11 states with advertising this week. They are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. McCain and the Republican National Committee also are up with an ad in Minnesota.

Obama, however, has expanded the field for now, placing ads in Indiana, Michigan, Montana, and North Dakota.

Timing is also crucial. Five battlegrounds - North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri and Michigan - begin distributing absentee ballots between Sept. 19 and Sept. 23.

McCain must ensure a state like Montana, which voted for Bush 59-39 percent over Kerry in 2004 doesn't flip. But the state has two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor. He must shore up North Dakota and hold on to other states Bush won such as Nevada and Colorado, where there's been a growth in the population of Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters.

"The secret of the next 30 days is to get these traditional Republican states back in our column,'' said Reed.

It won't be easy. Obama has the financial resources to keep those states competitive, forcing McCain to divert money he will desperately need in tossup states.

Palin will be McCain's ambassador to vulnerable Republican "red'' states. She'll cross paths with Biden in small cities and rural hamlets in Pennsylvania and Ohio in competition for working class white men and women. McCain would be free to promote himself as a maverick and independent in states such as New Hampshire and in the suburbs and ex-urbs where independent and undecided voters might live.

The debates

McCain and Obama will face each other in debates three times, each lasting 90 minutes and one conducted in a town hall format. The first opportunity to see the two candidates side by side will be Sept. 26, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., with domestic policy as the sole subject.

Obama has the upper hand going in, with polls showing voters trust Obama more than McCain to fix the economy. If the race is tied as the debate begins, Obama could help change the dynamic.

Vice presidential debates aren't decisive, but can put a campaign on the defensive. The public is likely to tune in to the Oct. 2 Biden-Palin debate for the novelty of it.

The next two debates favor McCain. On Oct. 7 they will meet at Washington University in St. Louis for a town hall styled meeting on any subject. McCain likes the format and uses it regularly on the stump.

A week later, the two will meet at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., to discuss foreign policy. In polls, McCain leads Obama on questions of defense and who would best deal with Iraq. That debate, held almost three weeks before election day, could prove to be as key as the final debate was for Ronald Reagan in 1980 when his performance broke him out of a tie with Jimmy Carter.

Indeed, debates are about the show - who best connects with voters on the subject at hand, who stays on message and doesn't fumble a name or a country. Who doesn't look at his watch or sigh with disdain. And, in these particular debates, how will the 72-year-old McCain compare with the 47-year-old Obama.

The money

Obama is the first major party candidate to opt out of the general election public financing system since the post-Watergate reforms of the 1970s. His fundraising has dazzled. Now Biden will be his chief fundraiser, using his connections to tap deep-pocketed trial lawyers and donors once loyal to Hillary Rodham Clinton in Florida, a top money state where he has ties to big contributors.

Obama's most powerful financial weapon is an online network of nearly 2 million donors who can respond to a money appeal with a few strokes on a keyboard. Palin's rousing convention speech Wednesday invigorated conservatives, but a call for cash that night by the Obama campaign generated $10 million in less than 24 hours.

Still, Obama will have to raise money in unprecedented sums. Democratic fundraisers say he and the Democratic National Committee, which can raise money in larger individual donations, must jointly raise $200 million to $250 million this fall to make the venture outside the public funds system worthwhile.

McCain is staying within the public system. That means he gets $84 million without effort. But to compete with Obama's money machine, the Republican National Committee is picking up the slack, already airing hybrid ads with the McCain campaign that help stretch McCain's spending limits.

McCain raised an impressive $47 million in August, a campaign record. In a testament to Palin's role, the campaign said $10 million of the total came in the three days after McCain announced her as his running mate.

The McCain campaign says its combined campaign and party resources entering the fall campaign are between $220 million and $240 million. It expects the Victory '08 committee to raise at least $60 million over the next two months.

Palin is the draw. Until the election, she's booked for fundraisers at the rate of one every two days.

Florida Real Estate with Brandon Jordan, your Northwest Florida Realtor and ActiveRain featured Realtor for Okaloosa County since 2007. We provide this information and much more on our site for you at no charge, so please remember us when you're looking to buy or sell real estate.