YMCA's Corks & Forks
Celebrates the tastes of Central and South America!
| Saturday, November 21, 2009 | |
| Time: | 7:00pm - 10:00pm |
| Location: | Campo Family YMCA (poolside!) |
| Street: | 3414 Culbreath Road |
| City/Town: | Valrico, FL |
Come together for good eats and good times while sampling wines and beers from our South and Central American neighbors! Celebrate the excitement of Carnivale with delicious tastes from a variety of local restaurants and vendors, pick up a great gift or two from our silent auction, and have a great time! All funds raised will stay right here in the Brandon Area, providing scholarships for local kids and families to participate in healthy, value-rich programming offered at the Brandon, FL YMCA.
Tickets now available online
Rick Frissell-~ Brandons Beautiful Homes
813-653-1241
By Rick Frissell, Realtor®
Author & Consultant
In the past, buying a foreclosed home was a very challenging process. This was because of the limited supply of foreclosures. In many cases, it took several weeks, if not months, to find a good foreclosure. Next, you had to win the bidding war to buy it. And finally, you had to have an armored car full of money to repair the home.
Well, this has all changed with the recent foreclosure crisis. Today, there is a large supply of great foreclosure opportunities. In fact, you can find these homes very quickly, banks are accepting lower offers because of the supply, you don't have much competition which means no bidding war and believe it or not, the homes are in much better shape.
For a limited time, you can receive a free copy of a new book titled "Foreclosure Home Buying Secrets" which normally sells for $19.95. This book includes 100 pages of secrets to buying a foreclosed home. In this new book, you'll learn:
To receive the "Foreclosure Home Buying Secrets" book for free, visit:
www.TheFreeForeclosureBook.com or call the real estate information center at: 813-653-1241.
For additional information contact: Dave Tipton davetipton@brandonsbeautifulhomes.com
The $8,000 homebuyer tax credit for first-time buyers, due to expire at the end of November, will be extended through April 30 of 2010 and buyers will have an additional two months, until the end of June, to close. First-time buyers who are in the process of making a purchase will no longer need to worry about qualifying for the $8,000 credit if they close after the November 30 deadline. The new legislation increases the income limit for couples with income up to $225,000, a nearly $55,000 increase above the level in existing law.
This new law will make buyers who already own a home eligible for a credit. A $6,500 maximum credit will be available to existing homeowners who have lived in their current residence for five of the prior eight years. The legislation limits eligibility for the existing homeowner credit to homes worth $800,000 or less.
Debate on the homebuyer credit was mostly positive and the legislation passed 403 to 12. The legislation is scheduled to take effect December 1st and is not retroactive. Both credits are available only for primary residences, not second homes or investment properties.
It is expected that the President will sign the legislative package, which contains an expansion of unemployment benefits as well as the tax changes.
If you have any questions on this new law, please stay tuned for additional information or send us an e-mail.
Rick Frissell~ Florida’s Beautiful Homes- Realtors®
813-340-6828
Rick Frissell is a Tampa Bay Area Realtor, Author and Consultant. Rick loves to bike and walk his Golden Retriever pup in the Brandon, FL area. He has worked with Tampa Bay Area real estate for almost a decade. His website has a free MLS search for Tampa Bay Area homes along with Brandon Florida's Beautiful Homes Blog that allows readers gain insight into the Tampa Bay Area real estate market.
Interested in a Shameless Self Promotion of your Business?
We don't have a million readers yet, but that's our goal. We are opening up our blog to local businesses to "Guest Blog" on Brandon's Beautiful Homes.Com
We are looking for local Tampa Bay Area businesses, especially those that specialize in products or services of interest to home owners, home sellers or home buyers. We are looking for a Synergy with our guest bloggers. There is no cost, but we are looking for informative posts that don't just promote, but rather educate the audience.
Please don't expect us to just run an ad, but rather write something informative about your industry or your company. Posts to Brandons Beautiful Homes Blog are also syndicated to ActiveRain Real Estate Blog, Riverhills Beautiful Homes and Tampa Bay Appraisal. There are no guarantees of new business, but if your interested in promoting your business, website or search engine optimization, this should be right up your alley.
If you are interested in learning more about this concept, contact Rick Frissell~ Florida's Beautiful Homes for more information, either by e-mail or give him a call.
813-653-1241
One of the hottest markets in Florida, particulary the Tampa Bay markets, is bank foreclosures. Foreclosures have steadily accounted for between 25% to 35% of the sales units in the four counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Hernando and Pasco. The purpose of this blog is to help understand what to expect regarding price when shopping for a foreclosed home.
In addition to the hot foreclosure market is the short sale homes which is another part of the distressed housing market. "Short Sale" is the term that identifies a home that is for sale by the owner for a list price that is less than the homeowner's current mortgage balance. Our blog today is focused on foreclosures and we will return with another blog on "How To Find A Good Short Sale."
Before we get into analyzing prices of foreclosed homes, we have have to understand a little about how a bank determines the price they will list the home.
Once a bank forecloses on a property, the bank now owns the property. The term the banks use is REO, short for Real Estate Owned. That term, in a way, is a misnomer since the bank really does not want to own real estate. Rather, they would like to sell the foreclosed home as quickly as possible and put the money they receive, from the sale, back to work in a new loan.
So, rather that sit on a foreclosed house and try to get top price or even market price, the bank will put a list price of 10% to !5% below the current market price. In order to determine that price, the bank will order a BPO or Broker Price Opinion and the house will then be discounted based on the condition of the house, sales activity in the neighborhood and a host of other variables.
Why is this important for you, the buyer to know? Because many buyers are quickly disappointed when they find a house for, say $150,000, and they expect to make an offer for $125,000 and think they are doing the bank a favor to take it off their hands.
Am I saying that REO's are not a good deal? Not at all! There are many good deals, some great deals and some notoriously terrible deals. So let's illustrate what we mean, taking the components of just two of the many variables. Let's look at price range and days on market as two significant variables that will effect the kind of good deal you can get.
Take a look at these two houses:
A B
Size: 1,225 Sq ft Size: 1,298 Sq Ft
3 Bedroom 2 Bath 3 Bedroom 2 Bath
List Price: $106,900. List Price: $105,000.
Sale Price:$109,000. Sale Price: $95,300.
Days on Market: 2 Days on Market: 38
Both of these houses are located in Riverview, FL. Both close in age, both had similar taxes. The only significant difference, without visiting the property and taking personal observation, is the days on the market. Once house "B" began to "sit" a while, the bank settled for less of a price. As a matter of fact, $13,700. less!
What significance does time on the market take? Apparently a lot. Each bank and house has a tipping point. But, generally a bank will drop the price between 30 and 40 days or will be more open to all offers.
We did a study for the month of September 2009 of foreclosures focusing on List Price versus Sale Price and here are some observation for you to digest:
Did you catch that last item? Banks are getting their asking price.
So why is everyone clamoring for foreclosures if the banks are pretty much dictating the price? Because they are already pricing the homes at a bargain to begin with. Review a post by Florida Certified Residential Appraiser Jon Tipton on our site showing the actual numbers by listing classification of owner (traditional), Short Sale (3rd party approval) and REO. Here is what Jon reported in his blog. So you can see from the pricing per square foot, even at the banks asking price, they are priced the lowest.
So why wouldn't everybody just buy a foreclosed home? And that gets to the root of the blog. Supply and demand is why. There are not enough foreclosed properties to go to every buyer and as a result, the banks pretty much get their asking price.
So now that we have established that REO's are a great deal, can we still get a great bargain? YES!!
Take this next comparison:
A B
6 Bedroom 4 Bath 5 Bedroom 4 Bath
List Price: $309,700. List Price: $410,000.
Sale Price: $290,000. Sale Price: $395,000.
These two houses sold within a couple of months of each other. The house on the left, of course, is a foreclosure. The house on the right is an owner occupied home and these houses are on the same street. They both closed close to the same amount days on market.
So what does this tell us? Again, it is supply and demand. Where the previous examples were more influenced by first time home buyers, this last set of homes has a limited number of buyers. As a result, when the bank received and offer on an already depressed market price, the bank jumped on it. Likely there was some negotiation involved to arrive at the final price, but there is no question this buyer got a steal. Even if they would have paid full list price, they would have had a deal. But, their agent skillfully pulled another $20,000 off of the bank's list price.
So What Have We Learned?
Be sure to make a Realtor® a part of your team. Some buyers take this complicated and risky process on their own shoulders. Buyers NEVER pay for an agents services. The agent is paid by the bank. What it will cost you, is not getting an expert to help you find your property. Make sure you have an agent that knows the foreclosure market.
Would you like a copy of this study of the foreclosure market for the month of September? Click this link, Free Tampa FL Foreclosure Report, and we will email you the complete list of foreclosed homes sold in September with addresses, list price and sale price.
Rick Frissell~ Florida's Beautiful Homes
813.340.6828 Cell
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A rarity in the Tampa and Brandon area! One of the few that can claim being a life time local. Local knowledge and experience was a natural fit to become a real estate professional. Localism.Com
How did I get to where I am?
I feel fortunate to have lived in the Tampa/Brandon area all of my life and yet have seen a lot of the world. My travels are the result of time spent in the Navy that introduced me to parts of Europe along the Mediterranean Sea. North American travel was extensive during a 17 year employment with Eastman Kodak.
My last ten years with Kodak prepared me with the professional experience that would be incorporated into the real estate and mortgage business. As a national public speaker, trainer and coach for Kodak, I had the opportunity to discover what people want and need most.
What do most people want?
How does one find the right real estate agent to hire? The search can be daunting. Maybe you go by the most signs that you see along the roads and byways or maybe even the most bus benches. Perhaps the "Million Dollar" or "Multi Million" or even "Multi, Multi Million Dollar Round Table" agent would be your choice.
This is where the Kodak experience comes in. I never met anyone that cared whether Kodak was a major Olympic sponsor or had invented amateur photography. No, what Kodak understood was that people cared most about their Kodak moments. What people wanted most was their memories recorded forever.
I have found that home buyers are most interested in hiring someone that understands they want more that a house. What they want beyond a house is a home. Yes, a home that provides them their own Kodak moments. They want a house that will give them memories to hold and to cherish.
Interestingly, home sellers are not removed from that same kind of sentiment. Many would be surprised at how often I hear home sellers comment that they hope we find "just the right family" to buy their home. Their memories and moments in their home extend beyond the "For Sale" sign and to a hope that we sell to someone that will love the home as they have.
When we are asked to find a 3, 4 or 5 bedroom house, our mission is to find a house that will become their home!
Why Diamond Dwellings?
Diamond Dwellings gives us the ability to be the "Brandon Area" experts and provide the latest in web 2.0 marketing to our customers. Brandon Dwellings has positioned us in the market for the next decade and we are truly excited about what the future holds for us.
LOCALISM: Brandon, Florida Area
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