Jacksonville, FL

If you are like anyone today, you believe there are fabulous deals in real estate, and all you have to do is FIND them.

Yes, Virginia, there are deals in real estate, especially if you have cash, and a terrific credit score.

Let's look at the online auction in Jacksonville, since so many buyers believe auctions are where the REAL deals are.

For the date of 6/9/09, there were a total of 40 auctions schedule on the online auction site:

www.duval.realforeclose.com.

Of these, 21 were canceled PRIOR to the auction, either by court order, the attorney, or the plaintiff. So, over 50% of the available auction properties were canceled. That's a fairly high percentage, and as you can imagine, if you had your eyes on one particular home that was canceled, you'd be frustrated.

When will that home be re-scheduled for auction, you ask? Good question - the plaintiff (owner) can petition the court for cancellations and continue to postpone the sale; not forever, but I have heard of some cases that have languished on for a very long time.

Many times, however, if there are bidders interested in a property for a "steal", it's good to keep in mind the bank has bidders themselves, to protect their interests. They may have lent $1,500,000 on the house, and they will not sell it for $500,000 - without at least trying to do so themselves. So remember, you are bidding against the bank.

If you are interested in purchasing a foreclosure, investment property, or first home, please contact me to help you navigate the process. I will help you find the homes that fit your needs, budget and financing.

Carol Zingone is a Broker Associate with living and working in Jacksonville Beach, FL with Prudential Network Realty. She helps buyers and sellers throughout the Beaches, Intracoastal West and Greater Jacksonville, FL areas. She can be reached at 904/993-9048 or via email at carolzingone@clearwire.net

This data is from March & April 2009, and details an improving real estate market. Pairing this with the recent news that California has seen 3 months of increasing sales, and the picture starts to look much better than what the doom & gloom media have been saying.

Florida existing home sales rose in April for the eighth consecutive month. Here are city by city numbers fo single family homes:

City Percent increase April 08/April 09

• Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater 11%
• Orlando 38%
• Fort Myers-Cape Coral 81%
• Jacksonville -5%
• Fort Lauderdale 33%
• West Palm Beach-Boca Raton 3%
• Sarasota-Bradenton -12%
• Daytona Beach 10%
• Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay 17%
• Miami 98%
• Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie 26%
• Lakeland-Winter Haven 22%
• Pensacola 16%
• Punta Gorda 2%
• Fort Walton Beach 2%
• Ocala -8%
• Tallahassee -28%
• Gainesville -40%
• Panama City 11%

The majority of these cities have impressive year over year sales increases leading all involved to believe the state is reaching and may have well reached bottom, and inching up.

Now is the time to get moving in on the great pricing, and the fabulous homes for sale in Jacksonville, and use your $8K first time homebuyer tax credit. Contact me to get the process started!

Carol Zingone is a Broker Associate with a 100% Customer Satisfaction Rating in Jacksonville Beach, FL with Prudential Network Realty. She helps buyers and sellers throughout the Beaches, Intracoastal West and Greater Jacksonville, FL areas. She can be reached at 904/993-9048 or via email at carolzingone@clearwire.net

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If you are a loan officer or a lender that uses deceiving practices, who lies, or who likes to commit fraud.... you better watch out. I haven't heard about this as much in the pass, but HUD seems to be cracking down on those lenders that abuse FHA loans and HUD's policys.

As a warning to others in the lending business, HUD made a press release on June 10th, 2009, stating 3 lenders that have been suspended by HUD. These 3 lenders were suspended for serious violations under HUD's regulations. This is directly from the press release....."The 3 mentioned were Golden First Mortgage Corp of Great Neck, NY; Great Country Mortgage Bankers, Inc. of Coral Gables, FL; and Beneficial Mortgage Corporation of San Juan, PR."

Yes, it's all about sales and for many, it's how you can rope in some borrowers to come to your company. I see it often and hear more about it through new clients that have been duped or lied to by other loan officers or lenders. But there should be some form of integrity, no matter how much you might have to sell. I truly believe in educating the borrower, giving them a good deal, and allowing them to make their decision then. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good loan officers that follow this same practice. But for some reason, I am getting more people this year that have had bad experiences than I did in previous years.

Overall, why is this? In my opinion, once supbrime mortgages left the market place and conventional loans became harder or more pricey in rate, many lenders applied for FHA approval. You can read about the 3 lenders and why they were suspended in this press release. HUD press release in suspending 3 lenders

Summary : I would love to see more actions taken amongst lenders and loan officers. The 3 lenders that were suspended were for other related actions outside of your normal bad business practices of lying and such. In what I call, the bad performance of a lender or loan officer, to where they either bait and switch, or that they just mess up a semi simple deal. And in some cases, that deal gets delayed and or very poor service is involved. Please read this blog for a few examples that have taken place amongst two new clients of mine. The further that I dig into the first one, they would have never come close to the settlement date, based on some hard core evidence that I found. In my opinion, the previous lender was going to miss the settlement date by at least 7 to 10 days. To me, that is just unacceptable, because there was no urgency in what they were trying to accomplish. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that things happen and can delay a settlement. But this was not the case. Please read about it here.... False information in regards to who gets the origination fee

Other HUD practices against unfair lending practices -

FHA / HUD sets standards for Mortgagee Monitoring

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- FHA Loans - USDA Loans - VA Loans -

- Energy Efficient Mortgages -

- Conventional Loans - 203 k loans -

- Mortgages -

Experience & Knowledge at its BEST !!!

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For more information on FHA loans, please go to this link. The FHA Expert

For more information about the 2009 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers : 2009 Tax Credit

For important mortgage insight to watch for, please read : Consumers need to be aware of these Red Flags !!!!

Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Belonger

Right in the middle between Jacksonville, FL and St Augustine, is what is called County Road 210. About 20 minutes from either city, this area has become a hot area for home owners. Great, full amenity neighborhoods, and typically more house for your money in St Johns County.

In today's real estate market there are some incredible deals in these neighborhoods. St Johns Forest has seen some recent sales at $200,000, down $100k from the start of the neighborhood. These deals are few and far between, so make sure you are working with a professional Jacksonville real estate agent to locate and help you negotiate your sweet deal!

Jacksonville Realtor