October was another strong month for home sales. Our office sold 32 properties last month and many more are pending for November. Banks love to dump their REO and short sale inventory during the 4th quarter so that it won't be on their books for the new year. Look at some of these great Central Florida home deals that closed in October 2009.
Fisher Drive Morning Glory Lane Pelican Lane
- Fisher Drive, Deltona, FL 32725. This 3 bed/2 bath/2-car garage home was a true investor special. Bank owned REO needing a bunch of work but what do you expect for this sort of price. It sold for the super cheap price of just $46,000 after just 5 days on the market.
- 1st Avenue, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714. 3 bed/1 bath/1-car garage block home. Located in the coveted Lake Brantley school district in Seminole County. House was a true handyman special, but the bank REO department wanted it sold. Seller let this one go for the low low price of just $27,500.
- Morningside Drive, Orlando, FL 32806. Big 4 bed/3.5 bath pool home. Just steps from Lake Lancaster near Delaney Park in downtown Orlando. Owner was motivated and this was priced to sell. After only 6 weeks on the market it sold for $270,000.
- Morning Glory Lane, Kissimmee, FL 34747. This was a fabulous short sale home in Celebration Florida. 4 bed/2.5 bath/2-car garage with spacious kitchen and modern features. At the top of the market this home sold for over $500K but we negotiated a short sale with the bank at just $340,000. We still have one more Celebration short sale home available. Call for details.
- Pelican Lane, Orlando, FL 32803. 3 bed/2 bath block home near downtown Orlando. Bank owned REO and a great wholesale deal. This Audubon Park home sold for just $105,000.
Our office has a constant stream of new bank owned REOs, foreclosures, short sales, and other investor specials. Make sure to sign up for our weekly hot property email list.
The City of Casselberry Florida has a new rental regulation and tax on their horizon. The City of Casselberry is planning on increasing revenue by a "very conservative ... $22,000" by tacking on yet another layer of fees and regulations onto the back of rental property owners most of whom are already strapped financially.
Proposed resolution 09-2088 would force owners of rental properties including single-family homes, condos, mobile homes, and apartment buildings to pay an additional tax each and every year for every unit they own in the city limits of Casselberry. Additionally the property owner would be required to provide their contact information to city hall so that code enforcement could more easily get a hold of them in case of a violation.
Now granted, the tax collector can easily get a hold of property owners each and every November when the property taxes come due. And the Seminole County Property Appraiser website already has maintained on a list of owners and addresses for every parcel within the county. But this isn't good enough. The solution is to tighten the noose around rental owners yet again and end up forcing more of them into foreclosure or bankruptcy in a tough economy.
The 1st hearing on this proposed rental regulation ordinance is this Monday, October 26, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. at the Casselberry city commission chambers.
You can read the entire proposed ordinance here.
An interesting debate is going on in Washington. The National Association of Realtors is doing everything it can to get the $8000 tax credit extended beyond the November 30, 2009 deadline.
However, the White House is still undecided. In a recent CNN article, Shaun Donavon, the Secretary of HUD says the statistics aren't in just yet to show whether this tax credit has spurred the economy.
Apparently the IRS is screaming all types of fraud saying that a significant portion of the tax payers filing for the tax credit may have done so fraudulently. Over 107,000 questionable files have been opened by the IRS according to Fox News. To me that's not surprising. Look at all the fraud and "bonuses" that have been paid out as a result of the TARP money in Fall 2008. Everytime the government creates some new handout or incentive there is always lots of fraud that happens.
Personally I still have mixed emotions on extending the deadline on the tax credit. So I haven't contacted my Congressman either way. Seems like nearly 40% of the buyers in my market are paying cash. So while the tax credit has had some impact, it probably hasn't been as much as they are hyping it up to be. However at the same time I know the tax credit has knocked some buyers off the fence which is a good thing.
It will be interesting to see what happens in December if they don't extend the deadline. If you are planning on taking advantage of this, you better get a contract signed quickly because the time is running out fast.
My bet is that like the Cash For Clunkers program, Washington will allow this program to end and not revive or extend it. But who knows for sure.
That's right. If you are considering not paying your Realtor dues this October 31, you can sign up with our firm Sand Dollar Referrals LLC and still sell property without being a member of the local board of Realtors or the MLS.
We have 2 different plans available.
If all you want to do is refer leads of family and friends to us, we have our "Hands Off" plan where you can simply send us the lead and we will work on it for you. Or one of our Realtors can match up with you and help you buy or sell a home. When the deal closes you get a referral fee.
Or we have the "Hands On" plan where you can do nearly everything that a dues paying Realtor would do except you don't have to join the board or the MLS.
For exact details on how each plan works, visit our website at www.SandDollarReferrals.com . Then give us a call and we can set up a confidential appointment.
Serving all of Central Florida - Orlando, Winter Park, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Apopka, Kissimmee, Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Sanford, Oviedo, Deltona, Deland, Daytona Beach, Mount Dora, Clermont, Leesburg, Ocala, Winter Haven, Lakeland, Davenport, Melbourne, Titusville, Cocoa Beach, and more.
I was digging around through some MLS stats yesterday afternoon and put together the following numbers:
Since 7/1/2009 there were: 22,604 residential closings in the 13+ counties that comprise the Mid-Florida MLS. 6,536 were not designated as if they were a distressed sale or not - the MLS started requiring properties to be designated this way on or about September 1.
16,068 were designated as a short sale, bank owned, or neither. Of those 16,068 -- 7,582 (47.2%) were bank owned, 3,524 (21.9%) were short sales, and 4,963 (30.9%) were neither.
Of the 22,604 closings - 9,575 (42.4%) were bought with ALL CASH, 5,511 (24.4%) were bought with FHA or VA mortgages, 6,255 (27.7%) were bought with conventional mortgages, and 1,263 (5.6%) were closed using some other form of creative financing or other financing.
It is surprisng how many cash buyers are out there. It is also surprising how many sales were bank owned compared to the others. Short sales seem to dominate the properties for sale, but are low on the list of closed sales.
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Full service and investor-friendly Realtor - Sand Dollar Realty Group. Serving Central Florida / metro Orlando for rentals, foreclosures, short sales, REO, wholesaling, creative finance & flat fee MLS
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