Are your expectations in line with the current Florida real estate market?

As a buyer or a seller of a home or property in Florida, are your expectations in line with what the market is saying?

Buyers

• Are you aware that short sale transactions can take longer to close than traditional deals?
• Did you know that bank owned/foreclosed property will often receive multiple offers which will push the final sales price higher than the initial listing price?
• Time is running out in order to take advantage of the first time home buyer tax credit and there are no guarantees the credit will be extended.

Sellers

• Over pricing your home is not a good strategy in this market. Testing the market usually results in a failing grade.
• Trying to short sale your home simply because it is no longer worth what you paid for it is not considered a valid reason by your lender.

Buyers and sellers need to manage their expectations. My job is to make sure that you know going in what to expect, and to explain how we can work together to make sure you receive favorable results.

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Home builder want tax credit for home buyers

From a NAHB press release dated June 5th:

H.R. 3221, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of
2008, contains a provision that would provide a temporary, first-time home buyer
tax credit of $7,500 for the purchase of any home used as a principal residence
and closed on between April 9, 2008 and April 1, 2009.

Joe Robson, first vice president of NAHB states: “Policies that stimulate
home purchases in the immediate future can pay huge dividends and a temporary
home buyer tax credit provides the most bang for the buck.”


Read the complete press release.


Related Florida real estate views:

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- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255

Orlando buyers are asking about homes for sale

The past 2 weeks have seen an increase in the number of floor calls our agents have received. A floor call is generally a buyer who has seen a sign, read an ad or saw a listing on our website or craigslist and calls into the office to receive additional information.

The up-tick in the number of calls is encouraging to the agents. While I would never consider it as a sign that the market has somehow miraculously changed, it does provide additional proof that regardless of the current conditions, there are those people looking to buy.


Related Florida real estate views:

Builders confident buyers will take advantage of tax credit

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- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255

What does it cost a buyer to use a Realtor to purchase a home?

From those I have spoken to, many potential home buyers are unaware of the cost to have a real estate agent help them find a home.

While I cannot speak for every real estate agent or company, we rarely charge a buyer to assist them with buying a home and I have written a web page explaining why there is no cost of using a real estate agent from our office.


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Does your agent have enough money to advertise your home?

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- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. 407-304-0255

Fannie Mae CEO offers suggestions to unleash housing demand.

In a speech to Annual Chamber of Commerce "State of American Business" Conference, CEO Daniel Mudd offered suggestions to help unleash the “latent demand for housing.”

He offered three groups of potential buyers the industry should try and reach;

New Americans. Mr. Mudd commented that there have been over 8 million new Americans in the last 10 years and that this is the fastest growing population. Even if a small percent of those “new Americans” purchased a home it would help boost the housing market.

Veterans. His thoughts are that the VA home buying programmed should be “beefed up” to make it easier for the men and women of our armed forces to purchase a home.

Minority families and communities. The minority home ownership gap must be closed.

Mr. Mudd has made several good points. It is my opinion that real estate agents and realty companies individually and as a group, have not taken full advantage of the opportunity to address the critical need of educating, assisting and promoting the benefits of home ownership to those groups. This would seem to be an obvious win-win for everyone.

From a purely selfish standpoint, the increase of buyers would go a long way to offset the challenges now facing real estate agents throughout Florida and most of the country. It appears that some of us ignored the slow dwindling of buyers in the market place due to the amazing appreciation of home values over the past several years. With the demand side of the real estate market shrinking for some, it was ignored or masked as we watched our profits rise by the sheer increase of volume.

What better way to restore the health of the industry and help thousands of Americans enjoy home ownership at the same time than to implement changes to our our model as suggested by Mr. Mudd.

Daniel Mudd’s entire speech can be found by visiting here.

Related Florida real estate views:

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Builders say Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac have failed

National real estate market nowhere near the bottom?

- Greg Staker - Watson Realty Corp. - 407-304-0255