Julia & Matt Fishel, Real Estate YOUR Way in Tampa Bay by

At The Pinellas Peach, we are raving mad about The Pinellas Trail, which is the stupendous 34-mile artery that connects residents from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg.

Originally the Orange Belt Railway in 1884, The Pinellas Trail is now used by over 90,000 bicyclists, runners, roller bladers, and Sunday strollers per month. In 1983, the trail was the brainchild of a man who's son was killed while riding his bike. By 1990, the first 5-mile section opened connecting Taylor Park in Largo to Seminole Park in Seminole.

The trail has now grown to over 34 miles long as shown on this map, and just this year plans were put in place for the Pinellas Trail Loop, which will connect The Pinellas Trail from downtown St. Petersburg to SEE REST OF STORY HERE

Effective October 1st, you can no longer have the seller pay your down payment on your Palm Harbor real estate investment, or even a hut in Timbuktu. Unless you're a veteran of the armed forces, you will need at least 3% of your own or gifted money to purchase a home anywhere in the US - with no exceptions. The reason? The recent approval of HR 3221 and all that it entails.

The passage of this bill eliminates ALL seller-funded down payment assistance with FHA-guaranteed loans. In addition, if you were thinking of buying a new home, home buyers will no longer be able to rely on nonprofits that funnel money from home-builders into seller-funded down payment assistance programs.

HR 3221 therefore finalizes HUD's long quest to end that practice as well. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) claims that the provision of monies from the seller causes an artificial inflation in the housing market statistics. This is because the record of the transaction at closing, (known also as the HUD), reflects the price of the home to be higher to compensate for the closing costs paid by the seller (a fair argument).

The belief is also that the odds of the homebuyer defaulting on the loan triples as they are basically buying the home with no money out of their pocket but with money provided by another party. Seller-funded down-payment assistance has become extremely popular as it was used on more than 35 percent of all home purchase loans insured by FHA in fiscal year 2007. This is a dramatic increase compared to less than 2 percent seven years ago.

We want you to be aware of how the changes can affect you and your home purchase plans. Feel free to contact us regarding this pending change.

Perhaps the best part of being a Pinellas Real Estate Consultant is the wonderful people we encounter. Just a few weeks back I had the pleasure of meeting Wayne Smaridge at one of our Dunedin home listings. Much to my delight, Wayne also just happens to be the talent behind the three most amazing blogs that feature the joys of living in Pinellas County!

Wayne's Clearwater Beach photo, Sunset Painted Clouds, took my breath away. Too see all of Wayne's artistry, and to get a true sense of what it feels like to call Clearwater Beach or Dunedin home, I'm pleading with you to check out his sites! Visit Clearwater Beach Daily Photo, Clearwater Daily Photo and Dunedin Daily Photo.

Prepare to be amazed, entertained and wanting to come back for more.

If visiting Wayne's sites has you ready to pack your bags and move to Pinellas County to buy a Clearwater Beach condo or a great piece of Dunedin Real Estate to call home, I can't say I blame you! Feel free to search all Clearwater Beach condos or even search the Pinellas MLS like a Realtor does.

Interested in buying a foreclosure property in Clearwater or Dunedin? See this for further info.

The first in our Ask Julia - Your Pinellas Real Estate Questions Answered...

Q: What will the sale of our neighbors home do to our value? Two houses in our Palm Harbor neighborhood sold under market value as short sales. What does that do to the market value? Both of the houses needed substantial upgrading. We have upgraded our home from top to bottom. Will our efforts at improvement be to no avail? Pat.

A: Pat, I regret to say that these neighboring Palm Harbor home sales will affect your value, but perhaps not as much as you're concerned about. Pinellas short sales and foreclosures everywhere are a major piece of the puzzle that are driving prices down. A whopping 38% of Pinellas County homes for sale are currently short sales - a growing trend that's expected to continue full steam ahead through all of 2009 and beyond - and many buyers love them.

Buyers now "want a deal" and are scared about overpaying in a declining market. Even if there weren't short sales in your neighborhood, rest assured that Pinellas home buyers will even use Clearwater short sales or Dunedin short sales or REO properties to justify lower prices in your neighborhood. It's a rare (buyer) bird in this market that's not interested in short sales, and those are most often buyers that are under tight time constraints to move into a new home (as short sales can about 75 to 150 days to close).

All buyers will compare your home to the properties that sold next door to some extent - and will use that to justify a lower price - yet your experienced agent and the buyer's agent should be experts at pointing out the differences between your beautifully upgraded home and those distressed homes to help keep them in check with reality. Your agent should also be pointing out that now is the time for buyers to purchase your home because interest rates are rising and are projected to increase a lot more after the November election.

However, here's the really good news about your situation: The fact that you put significant upgrades into your home is going to be your saving grace should you decide to sell !! Homes that are fully upgraded, appear fresh and new, are priced right and are marketed to their full potential are selling like hotcakes! There are those buyers that either don't have the cash to perform upgrades or don't want the hassle. And they want homes just like yours.

As an extra added bonus, we have seen the demand for Palm Harbor increase over other areas due to the recent elimination of school choice, so you've got that in your favor, too.

You CAN sell your home now at a very fair price, and certainly for more than those neighboring short sales. If you are thinking of selling, and aren't prepared to wait at least 3 to 5 or more years to move on, then time is of the essence. The reality is that tomorrow your home will be worth less than it is today - so if you're thinking of selling in the near future, my best advice is HURRY!

See ‘How to Sell Your Home Now' or give us a call at (727)366-0324 and we can chat about your situation.

Or ..... enjoy your home, relax and forget about the negative media. Over time, real estate remains the single best investment most people ever make.

In life and real estate, everything's possible! Visit The Pinellas Peach for more valuable area info.

If you dislike gushy, touchy-feely, inspirational talk, you’ll HATE this post. If you want to hear about a typical day of a Palm Harbor real estate agent then you’ll REALLY HATE this post. Will you read it anyway?

I’ll confess, being a Palm Harbor real estate agent in this market is sometimes hard. We’re blessed to be helping some folks facing Dunedin and Palm Harbor foreclosures, via Short Sales, and some of them amidst this turmoil in their lives can be a bit heavy to deal with. And they may get sick of my “positive speak” about believing, visualizing and going after their dreams, but hey guys and gals - I can’t stop. I’ve been a train wreck more than once, and thanks to a culmination of things, including vision and faith, that’s ancient history now. Now it’s all about helping you - with your real estate needs - and in any other little way we can hopefully make a difference.

This morning I showed this Dunedin Short Sale to a fellow who was, and let me try to be polite here, I guess having a very bad day and was pretty hostile. I’ll call him Charlie to protect the innocent (sorry, Charlie). I tried to put the incident past me but Charlie kept creeping into my mind throughout the day. I kept wondering why Charlie was so upset and why I had that experience.

Then it was off to write an offer on a great Palm Harbor home in East Lake for Sasha and Kim. We’ve got some hurdles to overcome to get to the closing table, but I believe we’ll get there. Next I was off to meet with one of our wonderful Palm Harbor short sale client friends, just to meet with him briefly to put his mind at ease and remind him of the end goal, as it seems that the bank’s collection people were starting to get the best of him. Then it was a usual afternoon of scheduling showings, returning calls and the like.

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Amazing Days in Palm Harbor Real Estate … and Beijing, too