Michael Cantwell

The Jupiter Christian Football Team is Rolling Towards a Third Consecutive Undefeated Season with last nights crushing victory, 53-0. All though the entire team looked exceptionally well in last night's game, there were a few players that stood out the most. Running backs Will Powers, son of coach Bill Powers, and Trey Pendergrass had an amazing combined total of 319 rushing yards in their game last night. They also scored 5 touchdowns for the Jupiter Christian Eagles.

Pendergrass, near the end of the first quarter made a 45 yard catch for a touchdown, which was thrown by another star of the game, quarterback Marshyl Rothman. Jupiter Christian coach Bill Powers said that "even though the weather was bad our quarterback still threw well." Marshyl Rothman, a few minutes after the 45 yard pass to Pendergrass, returned a punt for another 70 yard touchdown, but unfortunately for the Eagles a penalty was called and that touchdown did not count.

When the third quarter got under way, Will Powers and Trey Pendergrass both ran in two more touchdowns for the Eagles. Near the end of the game Will's younger brother Ryan Powers, also son of coach Bill Powers, got into the action. He finished the scoring for the Jupiter Christian Eagles with a 48 yard touchdown run. The Jupiter Christian Eagles pulled away with yet another victory. This brings their unbeaten streak to 32 games without a loss. The defense kept the Berean Bull Dogs to only 31 rushing yards, and only 41 pass yards.

Jupiter Christian's football team will have it's real test when they play a team in a much stronger division. Glades Central on October 16th is going to be the toughest game they have ever played. Last night Glades Central played the Clewston Tigers. Glades Central dominated the Tigers 46-0, and intercepted four consecutive passes the Tigers attempted. The Glades Central Raiders are currently ranked number 3 in the South Florida area poll of Beef O'Brady's. If Jupiter Christian can win that game then a Third straight undefeated season and Championship will be in their grasp.

Florida Property Tax Revenues are dropping due to the lower values of homes throughout the state. Local governments have no choice but to cut hours for workforce. In a sign of the times I wake to a headline that the town of Wellington, Florida has approved a shift to a 4 day workweek. This is something that is being seen across Palm Beach county, the state of Florida and parts of the United States as the dramatic drop in home values is pressuring budgets everywhere. While this isn't news to those of us in the real estate and mortgage industry, the effects will be widespread and maybe long lasting. The article in the Palm Beach Post mentioned that the tax rate was increased to $2.50 from $2.34 per $1,000 in home value, overall the total revenues dropped with the lower values suffered by most of Palm Beach County.

One of my concerns has to do with the services we expect in Palm Beach County and the state of Florida when we need inspectors to provide a quick turnaround on required permits, re-inspections and title documentation. We count on these functions to help us provide financing for buyers that want to close on a new home or refinance their existing home. When we have delays, rate locks can expire or closings that are in a chain can cause multiple transactions to fall apart. Many homes have additions or conversions that were not done with the proper permitting and trying to get these matters straightened out can be very time consuming. The reductions is workweek hours will just make the process even more challenging.

Even quality of life issues like the Wellington Villages Gym and local parks will be cutting hours. The move will be for a trial period of 6 months but I fear that we will need to get used to the new normal. Higher taxes and reduced services may be here longer than anticipated. Like much of life these days in South Florida and throughout the state of Florida we wake up each day and hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

The Florida Mortgage market has had plenty of FHA transactions this year. FHA loans are a great option for someone looking to buy a foreclosure or bank owner property, also called an REO. I also help many home buyers with an FHA loan called the FHA 203k or the FHA 203k streamline renovation loan. Since most of these properties are sold as is, an FHA loan that isn't a FHA 203k might not make it to the closing table if it needs repairs.

I have already blogged about some advantages to using the FHA 203k loan but even the FHA 203b loan will work just fine for many foreclosed properties. The main benefit for either FHA loan program is that you can buy a home with only 3.5% down as opposed to 10% down for a conventional loan in the state of Florida. When buying I like to give my clients the following list of the Top 10 Things to know when Buying and REO.

Top 10 Things To Look Out for on REO Properties:

10. Prior to making offer become a pre-approved borrower.

9. Ask the agent about Property Conditions of house upfront? Does it need Repairs? What are the type of repairs? If so, is it a possible Renovation Loan? See me ASAP.

8. Read contract thoroughly!!

7. Make sure to ask the lender to order appraisal as soon as possible .

6. When lender is ordering the appraisal be sure and verify who the best person to contact is and that is an REO Property.

5. Make sure the lender will alert appraiser to contact agent prior to inspecting the property to ensure water and power have been turned on.

4. Order Title ASAP and work with Attorney to ensure clear title, no back taxes and proper chain of title is met.

3. On a FHA loan, a property with Septic, order Septic inspection early in process

2. If using Down Payment Assistance make sure funds are still available.

1. Work with Fulfillment to make sure all requested documents are sent in asap. If you don't meet the closing date per diem charges might be charged to you.

These Tips will help your transaction go smoothly in the state of Florida.

This Blog is my opinion and does not represent the views of my employer Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in any way.

House for Sale by Owner was a frequent sign that I saw as I began my September Open House Blitz month. In Jupiter and North Palm Beach yesterday I had the opportunity to visit 15 Open Houses in a little under 3 hours. I was very surprised to see 5 of the 15 being held on this beautiful Sunday afternoon hosted by Owners. I was taken back as it seems that as tough a market as we are now facing the fact that so many people still want to go it alone amazes me.

Of the homes and condos I had a chance to visit traffic was moderate. It was not as slow as the open houses I visited last spring but not what I would call very busy either. In spite of the great prices and the soon to be expiring ( Nov 30th) Federal Tax Credit for First Time Buyers, I was shocked that more people were not out looking at homes. It isn't as if there were too many open houses either as I had to drive quite awhile to get to the homes and condos. I was lucky that they seemed to be in groups.

Interestingly enough, the issues that are very well known to the local Realtors such as the cancer cluster concerns in the western part of the county, the Chinese drywall throughout the southeast and southwest parts of Florida, and the Federal First Time Home buyers Tax Credit upcoming expiration were unknowns to the For Sale By Owner hosts. Scary to think of what they don't know when it comes to our local concerns. If they would just think to hire a local Realtor to market their property they would be fully aware of these issues and have protection from all the possible legal issues. Not knowing isn't much of a defense today. I wasn't about the break it to them since I didn't want to overstep my welcome. However I couldn't help to think of the liability they were opening themselves up to trying to go it alone.

This Blog is my opinion and does not represent the views of my employer Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in any way.

Florida has been very lucky so far this year and that is great news for the struggling housing market. It is the height of hurricane season and it is dangerous to temp fate here. However I will, because if I was a timid person I would not be a mortgage loan officer during the worst real estate slump since the great depression. As bad as the market has been over the last few years, we are not suffering like we did when I first came to Florida in 2005. That fall I was experienced my first hurricane, it was Wilma and it seemed to me that is when the market in South Florida died. That is when closing and new buyers just started to disappear. It was brutal and I am aware that it would take just one more hurricane to knock us down again. I am predicting that this won't be the year and we will not get a hurricane the rest of 2009 to hit southeast Florida!

It just feels that way to me. I notice that the tropical waves coming off Africa are getting sheared and have not been able to gather the required strength to form into a Category 4 or 5 storm. This is very similar to how the season went last year as well. It makes me confident that even if a storm does form it won't hit us directly. It will move north like the early season named storms have done or to the south as some of the late season storms tend to do.

What does this have to do with real estate in Florida? Plenty. The homeowners insurance costs are about 50% of what they were from a few years back. The premiums were as high as $10,000 per year a few years ago and many couldn't even get it at all as many insurers were pulling out of the state. The other killer to the market is if we are in the path of a named storm then we will not be able to secure a policy until the storm has passed and hopefully another one isn't bearing down on us right away. In 2004 and 2005 after multiple storms were lining up to batter our state closing grounded to a abrupt stop.

As prices have become incredibly attractive and the First time home buyers tax credit is available, we hang on to a tentative bottom. I nervously watch each day the weather patterns far off to the east, with each passing day feeling more and more confident that maybe, just maybe we will stay hurricane free and the Florida real estate market gets off the mat and becomes Category 5 strong again!

Reno-Mike.com

This Blog is my opinion and does not represent the views of my employer Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in any way.