Randal Jenkins YOUR INVESTOR FRIENDLY REALTOR

Why use a Realtor in Pasco County?

If you know about sink holes, repaired and unrepaired, disclosed and non disclosed, well you dont need a Realtor.

Do you know Chinese Drywall? Did you know that in over 18000 transactions in the last 3 years only about 30 homes had Chinese Drywall, or an indication of Chinese Drywall, or had Chinese Dry Wall replaced. Not a big risk. You dont need a Realtor if you have this covered.

SWIFTMUD Swales. If you know what these are you are cool.

Insurance ramifications regarding roofs with under 3 years of life. Nothing to worry about, unless of course you dont know what is going on.

Permitted and unpermitted improvements. Improvements, some of these home owner projects are dis-improvements. And if a home has had work done with out a permit, well, it might have to be undone.

Did you know that if you have dry wall on the ground floor of a post 1993 water front home in W Pasco County that you could be forced to demolish it. NO big deal unless that dry wall encloses a 1200 sq foot 3/2 appartment, illegally installed adding $120,000 worth of value, that the buyer just might lose if the county condemns it.

No, if you have all this covered, you don't need a Realtor.

If you have uncertainties and need help, call a Realtor.

Randy
Randal Jenkins Coldwell Banker F I Grey and Son Residential 727-409-4663

I have 4 waterfront properties for sale.

They range from $59,900 to $179,900. They all have gulf access.

You can see them with pictures at my web site www.buylowselllowrealestate.com.

As an investor friendly Realtor, I try to make it easy for my investors to buy, sell and shop for real estate.

I am happy to send out automatic searches base on your criteria.

I know quite a few of the Florida markets, including the Tampa Bay area, Orlando, and Pasco and Hernando.

I have contacts in virtually all of the Florida markets so if you need a referal of an agent in your market let me know.

Randy

Randal Jenkins

Coldwell Banker F I Grey and Sons 727-409-4663

Spent 3 days at the Financial Freedon Summit with Chris McLaughlin and Nathan Jurewicz of Short Sales Riches.com.

These are smart guys that had lawyers speaking about short sales, note buyers talking about getting short sales done quicker by buying the notes. They had a phenomenal investor by the name of John Burley speak passionately about how to do business....though he seemed like he was mad as some one.

There were social media experts, transactional funders, rehabbers, some speakers that are probably direct competitors of the sponser ShortSalesRiches.com.

Have one more day to finish...today. Can't wait to get back to work, Monday.

But for now I am on my way for another day of knowledge, content and hopefully to ad more to my quiver of arrows.

Figured out that last year in Sept, I spent 3 days with Larry Goins, this past June 3 days with Than Merrill and his crew, now 4 days with Chris McLaughlin and Nathan Jurewicz.

Good stuff mostly.

Have a great marketing week.
Randy

Sat through my local boards Ethics training update. There were over 100 Realtors in the room. The Realtor next to me told me how when she came into town, her family member a local Realtor helped her buy her home.

Turns out the home was a sink hole and the seller did not disclose it. (I will talk about sink holes and then come back to the story.)

SINK HOLE...this is not what you think. Generally, in my county, Pasco County Florida, we don't really have "holes" that open up and swallow your house...though it is possible.

We have homes that have under ground geological anomalies, like pockets below ground, where, well there is no ground, there could open areas that might be dozens or hundreds of feet below the surface. The ground around the house becomes destabilized and the house gets cracks. Sometimes, the doors and windows start bending and I have been in houses where there is a distinct slant to the floors. I have seen houses where a wall is stair cracked and it looks like a part of the house is falling away from the rest.

I have also seen perfect houses, with no visible damage, that are "sink holes".

Let me explain. In my market, it seems, a sink hole is an insurance term, though I am not sure if I am the only one that sees it that way. A home that has had a sink hole insurance claim is a sink hole. A home that has been investigated for settlement, where the inspector has filed a notice in the public record, is a sink hole. A home that has been repaired for settlement damage is a sink hole...a repaired sink hole. They have a special coding for that...and it is very deceptive...I will explain later.

A home that is cracking and settling might not be a sink hole. It is a house with bad settlement activity. This could be from a poor foundation, too thin, or from no footers....seen that on older houses. It could be bad cement. In fact, settlement is pretty normal when you build a home on sand. (most of Florida). I have seen 2005 homes with stair cracks. This is not a sink hole, this is normal settlement. Caulk and paint is recommended. By the way, we can make this a sink hole by doing ground penetrating radar and other geological testing to determine there is an underground anomaly and get our insurance company to pay us a big settlement and then it will be a sink hole.

There are lawyers, independent engineers, and sink hole repair companies making fortunes suing insurance companies over these anomalies. That is one of the reasons insurance is so expensive in Florida. You can now opt to exclude sink hole coverage in your home owners policy. You are still covered for catastrophic sink holes but you wont be able to sue your insurance company for settlement cracks.

Sink holes repaired vs unrepaired. There are 2 codings in the public record. One is for unrepaired sink holes. The other is for homes that have been permitted for sink hole repair. The problem is that the permit may or may not have been closed. Meaning the repairs may or may not have been completed. It may be that the only action taken was getting the permit. Very tricky. If you have an interest in a home that has been permitted you have to follow the permit, to see if the work was completed and if the permit was closed out with a final inspection.

Back to the story of our Realtor that unwittingly bought an unrepaired sink hole from her family member realtor.

Seems the information regarding the house was in the public record. Readily seen by all. The family Realtor did not know or understand how to look it up. (I am sure they became an expert from this experience.) The seller basically screwed the buyer, and there is recourse, the buyer can sue the seller. For whatever reason, this was not an option chosen by the buyer.

So, 10 years later, this poor Realtor is living in an unrepaired sink hole. She can not get sink hole insurance coverage, as a claim has been paid on the property. She can not sell it with out disclosing the sink hole claim. Therefor the value of her home is 25% to 50% of the value of her neighbors homes.

What is the point. There is more. When these homes go into foreclosure and come out as REO's, the REO agents are not disclosing. Upon pointing out that a particular home is a sink hole, the selling agent response has been along the lines of..."this seller does not disclose anything." Or "the seller has no knowledge as to the condition of the house." I have even made offers where I have included verbage that says...buyer is aware of sink hole. This has not helped. I am bidding on property against buyers that have not included the sink hole discount in their bid. I can not compete.

I have real trouble understanding how the agent can get away with this. I thought we were supposed to disclose what we know about a property...I guess they don't want to lose the listing and the customer.

I have had to turn down listings from investors that did not want to disclose the sink hole status. One house recently resold at a price that makes me sure that the buyer was not informed.

So why did I title this local broker.

I am a local agent. Here is my advice. Do not buy a block home with siding. (too easy to cover the cracks). Talk to the neighbors. They all know which houses on the street are sink holes. Contact the county appraiser office to inquire if they have a system for identifying and tracking houses with sink hole activity. Dont buy a home near strawberry fields...sinkholes, strawberries and freezing temperatures are very correlated.

Interview your local realtors for special market knowledge and conditions of your market.

It has been 10 years that I have been doing real estate in Pasco County. 7 years as an investor and 3 years as a Realtor and investor. Every day I see solds that are dubious. Over priced. Sink holes. And maybe fraud.

Be sure to do your local market home work. Try to find a good realtor. Talk to the neighbors. Good Luck!

In Pasco County Florida, we have 32 block homes for under $30,000.

This reminds me of 2001. Except that in some of these neighborhoods, houses still might go for as much as $60k-$90k. You did not see that type of spread in 2001.

18 of these are bank owned and could close relatively quickly.

9 are short sales, where you might get a higher quality product. (The theory is the seller/defendant, is trying to mitigate the loss, might be living in the home, and has an incentive to maintain the home.)

5 of these appear to be owners/corporate owners, that are not distressed sales.

What is the point. The point is that I did not realize that the bottom end had dropped so.

These properties will cash flow with rents of $600. Work out the numbers.

Pay $30k...lets say cost of capital is 10%. Interest costs will run you $3000 a year or $250 a month. Insurance should ad another $2500 a year or $208. Taxes are all over the board from $500 to $2000 a year. So lets use $1200 a year for $100 a month. (just a note on the taxes...if you can find a "better" property in these price ranges the taxes will surely be higher...because it is a better property).

SO, $250 + $208 + $100 = $558. Not counting maintenance, vacancy losses, costs to make them rentable.

Is it worth $42 a month positive cash flow. Maybe not. But then only 4 are $30k. And that is the asking price. Many of them can be bought for less. One is $17k. 10% cost of capital is a pretty high number that can be brought down. Cash flow could be increased by reducing the cost of capital and certainly raising the rent.

Again, what is the point? This is an extraordinary time to be in real estate.

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