I've been attending the Florida Association of Realtors annual convention in Orlando this week. Yesterday I got to sit in on a session with Holly Benson of the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration.
She went over the State of Florida sponsored group health plan that I was not aware of called Cover Florida. The health care plans are available specifically for uninsured Floridians via Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Health Care, and a few others depending on the county. I don't know all the details, but the plans sounded pretty reasonable at least for someone that is not currently insured.
According to Holly Benson, the Blue Cross preventative plan averages about $50 per month per person and the catastrophic plan averages $148 per month per person. Hopefully if anything, this blog article will make Floridians aware of this insurance plan. Please feel free to share this information with anyone you know that is uninsured.
And before we allow the federal government to completely take over the health care system, please realize that you most likely do already have an affordable choice available if you live in Florida. I am sure many other States have similar plans available.
Other references she gave out at the session:
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(Copyright © 2009. Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.
407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com
We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based servicesin most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Kissimmee, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.
Most real estate brokers offer a one-size-fits-all service to their customers. It is a free marketplace, so that is their right to do so. Some customers do need all those services provided to them, and those customers will normally pay a higher price for doing so. Our firm is different in that we offer you a choice. Of course we do offer the full service package just like the other firms do (and we do it quite well), but we also offer a menu of services for you to choose from.
Many people just want the exposure from MLS, Realtor.com, and similar websites. We can provide that for a reasonable flat fee. In fact our flat fee MLS listing service has helped hundreds of Florida homeowners save thousands upon thousands of dollars in commissions. We have been offering this service for over 10 years now, and some of our customers have used our services dozens of times now.
Menu-based services also known as a la carte services basically allows you to pick & choose the real estate services you need and thus save hundreds or even thousands of dollars from a transaction. Here are some of the services that we can provide to you for a set fee:
Companies like Home Depot and Lowes have been offering menu based services for years. They can provide you with the products and let you do it yourself; they can connect you with the labor part too; and they can even let you rent heavy duty tools and vehicles. Fast food restaurants do the same - do you want a combo meal, or do you want just a burger and fries, or even do you want to switch out the fries for a bowl of chili.
The main point is that with us YOU GET A CHOICE. With most other companies, it is take it or leave it. To find out more about what we can do for you, please visit our website www.SDRhouses.com or follow this link to go directly to our Frequently Asked Questions and our menu of services. We want to sell your house for the best price in the quickest time frame possible.
Call for a free consultation and property price analysis today. Sell your home the Sand Dollar way!
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(Copyright © 2009. Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.
407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com
We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based servicesin most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Kissimmee, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.
The latest inventory and sales numbers are out for Orange County and Seminole County, Florida. The Orlando Regional Realtor Association released their numbers on Tuesday and more positives are in the figures.
You click here to get a detailed report on these Orlando real estate statistics.
The inventory of properties for sale continue to decrease by another 600 homes. The number of properties under contract is way up to over double what it was 6 months ago - part of this is because of changes in the rules regarding short sales which forces Realtors to mark unapproved short sales as pending once a contract gets signed.
One remarkable statistic is that the number of properties that sold during July 2009 (2141 homes) is higher than the number of expireds + withdrawns for the month (2115 homes). This is the first time that has happened in nearly 4 years. A very good sign.
Also prices appear to have possibly bottomed out (at least temporarily). For the second month in a row now both the average and median price in metro Orlando has increased slightly. Check the link above for full details. Orlando Sentinel Article.
| ORRA Originated Sales |  |
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| July 2009 | 5.34% | 17,231 | 4,158 | 3,696 | 7,713 | 787 | 849 | 1,266 | 2,141 | 103 |
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(Copyright © 2009. Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.
407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com
We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Kissimmee, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.
Last night at the Lighthouse Landlords association we had the fantastic opportunity to have Jerrett Brock from the Florida Attorney General's office speak to us for 2 full hours and do a question & answer session. His presentation was loaded with lots of very pertinent information for Florida real estate investors, Realtors, and mortgage brokers.
The one thing he continued to hammer probably a dozen times was about upfront fees. Florida Statute 501.1377 and the new Florida Statute 494.00296 are very clear in his opinion. You cannot charge upfront fees for any transaction used to stop or avoid foreclosure. Some of the transactions he specifically mentioned that you cannot charge upfront fees for are loan modifications, short sales, forensic loan audits, and mortgage counseling.
Some of the other transactions their office is highly scrutinizing are sale/leaseback, false hardships on short sales, short sale double closings without full disclosure to the seller and their lender, and attorneys working with 3rd party foreclosure prevention companies.
It was an interesting session to say the least. You can read more information at their mortgage fraud website.
In this world of everybody coming up with the latest new techinque on stopping foreclosure, it is important to learn all you can about what is legal and what is not.
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(Copyright © 2009. Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.
407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com
We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Kissimmee, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.
Learn to help people negotiate a mortgage modification! Or -- Help a consumer or even a Realtor negotiate a short sale! I must get 10 emails a day for these type of services. People pitching that they can teach you how to make big money negotiating mortgage modifications or short sales. Or people offering to negotiate the short sale for you and let you get back to selling properties. In fact a lot of Realtors and non-Realtors have jumped into these businesses in order to profit.
Obviously with any new craze comes scam artists as well. So the Florida legislature (in their wisdom - ha ha) passed a new law Senate Bill SB 2226. This law makes significant changes to Florida's mortgage brokerage laws - Chapter 494, Florida Statutes - effective January 1, 2010.
In particular the law requires "loan originators" to obtain a license. Prior to this law, there was a giant loophole that allowed salaried employees of a mortgage brokerage to simply be unlicensed loan originators and still get paid fees for bringing borrower and lender together. (This loan originator part of the law actually phases in on October 1, 2010.)
Additionally the new law specifically covers negotiation of existing loans as being part of the duties of a mortgage broker - thus you clearly will need a license to negotiate mortgage modifications in Florida.
Thirdly there are new disclosures required in order to do a loan modification - large type print, 3-day cooling off period, and a whole lot more.
Fortunately the Florida Office of Financial Regulation did issue an opinion that Florida Realtors and brokers are exempt from this law as long as they are only earning a commission for doing a short sale and are paid at closing.
You can read more of the details at these websites:
Office of Financial Regulation opinion regarding short sales
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(Copyright © 2009. Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.
407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com
We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Florida.
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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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