Mount Dora, FL

On the shores of Lake Dora sits the majestic and historic Lakeside Inn

In the early 1880's Mount Dora was known as Royellou. The town consisted of no more than a post office. The postmaster Ross Tremain named the lakeside outpost after his three children; Roy, Ella and Louis.

The sixteen families who lived along the shore of Lake Dora decided the town needed a hotel. It was about this time Royellou was renamed Mount Dora. "Mount" for the uncommon attribute (for Florida) of being 184 feet above sea level.

Town Father John Alexander entered into a partnership with Annie MacDonald Stone Donnelly, wife of John P. Donnelly, and Colonel John A. MacDonald to open the Alexander House in 1883. The Alexander Inn still stands as Lakeside Inn's most historic building.

In 1893 the Alexander Inn was sold to Miss Emma Boone who changed the name to Lake House. At this time guests arrived by rail to the inn's backdoor. In 1903 Lake House was renamed The Lakeside Inn by Emma Boone and her new husband George D. Thayer.

The Lakeside Inn enjoyed its heyday in the 1920's despite prohibition. It is rumored the inn served as a speak-easy. (Possible evidence to the rumor is the secret passage in the lobby.)

In 1924 Charles Edgerton purchased the inn and remained the owner for 55 years. He added three buildings to the inn; The Sunset, The Gables and The Terrace. In 1930, President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the new buildings during his post-retirement vacation at the inn.

The Lakeside Inn has entertained the likes of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1979 the inn closed for the winter season for the filming of Honky Tonk Freeway, a John Shlesinger film. The inn was painted pink and an Indian elephant was shipped in and taught to water ski on Lake Dora for the film.

The inn boasts 86 guestrooms divided among the four historic buildings. Visitors can count on a peaceful stay with views of beautiful Lake Dora while the inn offers all conveniences of a modern premier resort.

Looking to visit Mount Dora, Florida? Find out more information or make reservations: http://lakeside-inn.com

The Time Has Come...

Dust off the clubs, find your glove and get ready!

Faith Lutheran School Parent Teacher League 5th Annual Golf Tournament is April 19, 2008

This event is held at

The Country Club of Mount Dora

Mount Dora, Florida

The Parent Teacher League of Faith Lutheran School, Eustis, Florida is working hard to make this year's event a tremendous success for the participants, sponsors and school. The funds raised by this year's tournament will be used for much needed playground equipment.

The tournament is a four man scramble with shotgun start. The cost per player is $60 which includes greens fees, cart, awards luncheon and beverage service. There are awards for the top three teams, closest to the pin, longest drive and a special $20,000 hole-in-one prize.

Shotgun Start is 8:30 AM

For more information call the school office at 352-589-5683, registration forms are available at the school website: http://fastdir.com/faitheustis (click on March 14 newsletter)

Sponsorships are still available

Oops, I had to edit to change the tee time to 8:30! You can sleep 30 minutes later. I hear the weather is going to be gorgeous!

The City of Mount Dora recently passed an ordinance requiring all owners of rental property to obtain "Rental Licenses". This new license requires the property owner to have city inspections once every 3 years and every time a new tenant moves in. It also requires the property owner to pay annual licensing fees. You can read more on this on the City of Mount Dora's website and in the Orlando Sentinel.

The intent of this ordinance besides to generate more revenue to the city is to keep slumlords in line. I do not know if an ordinance like this will do that though. The problem is not just with the slumlords, but also with the tenants that they rent to. Even nasty people have to live somewhere. It does not take into consideration that some landlords do a fine job of maintaining their rentals and some owner occupant homeowners allow their home to fall into disrepair. Some of the nastiest run down homes I have seen are owner occupied properties. At least a landlord has some financial incentive to keep the tenants from tearing up his property. Remember the Seminole County "Junk Man", he was an owner occupant.

The big issue is how to enforce this ordinance. How does the city know when a tenant turnover occurs? Considering that in most cities about 20-30% of all properties are non-owner occupied rentals or businesses, the city will have to police thousands of rental properties in order to enforce this ordinance.

The Lake County Association of Realtors and many local landlords fought this ordinance's approval, but it was passed and is now in effect. This is a major negative blow to real estate investors and Realtors in Mount Dora because of the increased fees and regulations that this will cause.

Similar ordinances have already been passed in the cities of Deltona and Cocoa during 2007. The cities of Orlando and Winter Park have rejected similar proposals because the policing of them would be to burdensome. It will be interesting to see how this will play out, but it definitely is not a good thing from a real estate investment point of view.

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(Copyright © 2008. Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Rob Arnold, ABR, CPL, CRB, GRI, Managing real estate broker, Licensed mortgage broker, Notary Public

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com/ www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com/

Your full service and investor friendly Realtor in Orlando. Learn to invest in Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Investor mentoring and counseling available. I also provide flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Central & South Florida, the Space Coast, and the Treasure Coast including Orlando, Tampa, Miami-Dade, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Ocala, Volusia, and Brevard.

We buy houses cash, sell properties, and list properties in Central Florida including Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, College Park, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Apopka, Pine Hills, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Longwood, Winter Springs, Oviedo, Lake Mary, Sanford, Deltona, Debary, Deland, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Mount Dora, Eustis, Leesburg, Clermont, Kissimmee, Saint Cloud, Davenport, Winter Haven, Lakeland, and more.

It has been brought to my attention that the City of Mt. Dora (a Lake County Florida city) has a rental inspection ordinance. This ordinance is ridiculous and will just make the property owner spend more. As if the extremely high property taxes weren't enough...

What is the Rental Inspection Ordinance?

--requires rental properties located in the city of Mt.Dora to pay an annual license fee of $30.00

---requires an inspection fee of $75.00

Notice I didn't say that is was an annual inspection fee. That's because the inspection is performed every time there is a change in renter, if a renter requests an inspection, a renter has a complaint or just if an inspector decides the property needs to be inspected.

This could result in a couple hundred dollars per year for rental owners.

This looks to be just the beginning of more fees to help ease the burden of the property tax cut.

I am curious how many cities around the country have this type of ordinance and how you feel about it.

Until next time....

Johnny Davis

Platinum Professional Realty PLLC

Broker/Owner

www.iselllakecounty.com

How much is your time worth...Is sitting on the phone on hold, or burning up the fax lines to some lender who cna't find your faxes worth the effort..I have my doubts some days...

As we acquire more and more short sale listings, it becomes more apparent that we will have to improve on our communication skills with the lenders.

We need a hot-line after the tenth call to get the same person back. We need a way to charge the lenders for dropping our calls as they transfer us to India. For those of us doin short sales, I am here to tell you that having less than 20-30 listings is very similar to having tons of overpriced listings. You have a very high percentage of working your butt off and not selling a thing.

I am seeing some surprising issues though...We are tracking over a hundred good equity properties thru the process, and like clockwork, most are going to auction and being retained by the lender. The homes are coming out the other end for less recently than they were when we first began our tracking analysis. One in particular turned down our "lowball" bid for 129k in November, just got placed on the market for 109k...Yes we sent in a new bid.

SO, is this what the lenders want...They must want to go to auction. There is no other explanation for all the road blocks, I am making changes to my game plan with our investors.

My time is valuable, I for one have decided not to spend our time talking to India any more. We have the banks seeing us fighting over all these shorts sales, we are doing all their advertising, all the leg work....This will end up with the lobbiest's for the banking industry using the present situation to go directly into the sales business and-into direct competition with us...You watch...I give it less than a year...