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Keep Your Home Sale from Falling Apart
After finding a buyer, all you have to do to make it to closing is to avoid these five traps. Read
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Copyright 2010 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
Keep Your Home Sale from Falling Apart
October 24th, 2010Fastest Growing City! Cape Coral, FL
October 21st, 2010
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Cape Coral made it to the list of America’s fastest gorwing cities. This is a great honor to be recognized as America’s best and top cities.
Are You Sure Your Seller Is The Real Owner? WARNING!
October 21st, 2010This is a cautionary tale. I received an email several months ago from a potential client. He claimed to be a lot owner in an exclusive neighborhood in Cape Coral, Fl. The lot is valued today around $450,000. The owner purchased this property at the top of the market for well over $1,000,000.
The email was his name @yahoo.com. He asked for comparables which I provided and he then instructed me to send him the listing agreement which he returned. These folks live in Germany so this did not seem unusual. I listed the property and did a video, signage and marketing.
I received a phone call from a friend/realtor of the REAL seller who just arrived for the winter. He told me these people never signed the listing and never intended to sell their lot. I met with them the next day and they were upset. I don’t know how far this could have gone, but let me tell you I was upset. We have both been scammed maybe because of absentee ownership. I can only imagine they might ask to use their title company or maybe a fraudulent passport and notary. I did report this to the FBI cyber crimes, yahoo and the local authorities.
Thank goodness we never received and offer. Don’t let this happen to you. Contact me and let me help you protect your investment!
Rantings On Mortgage Money. Just Do It Now.
October 3rd, 2010We have gone from fogging a mirror to get a loan to blood type and perfect credit.
We should never have had the first. It just led to misuse, greed, corruption and financial ruin. Who is to blame? Well, the financial institutions under federal mandate to have everyone own a home and then the almost manic lending practices instituted by these same institutions. It was out and out greed on their part to make as much money as quickly as they can. As competition for this market increased the crazy ideas to lend went even farther. Try to get an 80/20 loan now. What was that? When it was first announced I knew it was the beginning of the end. Life is just not 100% free without some serious strings attached.
Since the debacle we are back to 20% down or FHA 3.5% down. The trouble now is the pendulum has swung to the other direction. The mortgage process is arduous at best. By the time people even with good credit finally get their loan they are so stressed, angry and frustrated the excitement of their new home has been destroyed.
- The appraisals are often very low due to the crazy foreclosures and condition of properties. Prices on similar homes can vary 30% or more. The appraiser then takes the lowest and adjusts to that. The appraisers have taken the blame for much of this down market and now their rules have tightened. THIS IS THE FIRST AND OFTEN FATAL HURTLE.
- b. The old saying “Dot the I and cross the T” is taken to new heights. Here are just two examples. A Physician with and established practice was asked for a copy of his license. A senior VP transferred every year for the past three years had rented because of the transfers. They asked for 15 months of cancelled checks (front & back). After receiving those wanted 3 more months. AND ON AND ON AND ON!
I don’t know when things will get back to “NORMAL”. I just hope it will be soon!
Now that you know the bad let’s look at the good news. That would be: Interest rates are at an incredible all time low rate. Take advantage. What are you waiting for? Extremely low prices and extremely low interest rates are here now. Have you done the numbers? It is a WOW! Sign up for automatic searching in your area or desired area at www.TwoCityLink.com
RENT VS. BUY IN CAPE CORAL
August 13th, 2010Renting has several benefits;
Renting leaves you free to move frequently.
When renting the owner is responsible for repairs on the building.
A big plus right now is rents are low in Cape Coral and choices are plentiful at the moment. In uncertain times it may be your best option.
A negative to renting is not knowing an owners intentions of keeping the home. You have to ask the question if the seller is upside down in his property it may not be a good place to rent. When your lease is up you might have to move. If your owner is in financial trouble and going into a short sale or foreclosure you might have to move unexpectedly.
But, if you are employed with decent credit or have cash, this is the ideal time to buy.
When have you seen mortgage rates under 5%? They haven’t been this low in a half century.
When have you seen housing priced below replacement cost? This is definitely time to buy!
If you are staying in the home for more than 5 years, this is the time to make it happen. Tax breaks, freedom to be in control of your own environment. You can paint any color you want; remodel, etc.
You can get a nicer place, and monthly costs are stable as long as property taxes stay stable and that should happen.
There are a few dangers. If something breaks you have to fix it.
If you can, BUY NOW! This opportunity won’t come around again in our life time.
SHORT SALES VS. FORECLOSURE IN THE BANK’S EYE
August 11th, 2010In recent months it was apparent some of the short sales that made great sense were not making sense to the banks. We would have a fair market price for the home and a great buyer. They would just close the file and foreclose on the borrower. The question was always, why? The story is basically the same but let me set up the scenario. This story is played out all over Cape Coral and Fort Myers.
The borrower thinking the market would never collapse to the degree that we experienced refinanced for a variety of reasons (2 of my customers over 70 used the money to help their children). Others just purchased homes that were 60% more valuable than they are today. Since the collapse, they have lost their jobs, had health issues, and lost their retirement in the stock market and other retirement venues including owning other real estate.
The bottom line is they could no longer pay the mortgage payment. They need to survive. The program used to be that the banks did much better with a short sale than a foreclosure. A short sale was much quicker; the property was in better condition; the legal expenses were thousands less; it was a much better scenario for the banks in taking back a property.
Step in the Federal Government to screw this up. The banks that collapsed and their debt was offered to other banks at say 70% of value by the FDIC. You must watch the following YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer. Please pass this video on to everyone. It illustrates the greed of the financial institutions and lack of thought by the Federal Government. The ones getting hurt are the public. The fall out is not just the people losing their homes. The fallout from this has far reaching effects for the total economy and valuation of everything.
Don’t hesitate to comment and repost. Please contact your Senators and Congressmen. Let them know how disappointed you are in the current financial idiocy and to help real people.
Contact me at Linda@Flackteam.com or www.TwoCityLink.com.
Cape Coral and Fort Myers No Oil
August 9th, 2010The Forbidden Zone of SW Florida. We in SW Florida are located in the best place possible in Florida. The #1 concern today is over the Gulf Oil spill. But, we are looking very good. Not only does the Gulf loop current stay away from our shore, BP has the leak under control and is cleaning the water.
I didn’t know until recently that their are organisms in the water that feed on the oil. Over time this helps dissipate what is not picked up.
A team of researchers from the University of South Florida, Scripps Oceanographic Institute, Florida State University, and the Minerals Management Service (Yang et al. 1999) identify SW Florida as the ” Forbidden Zone”. This project placed over 300 passive drifters at various locations in the northern Gulf, from the Mississippi-Alabama border eastward to off Cedar Key, Florida, and tracked their changes in location via satellite.
Here is the link for the map of the passive drifters placed in the Gulf and the path that they took. This is what identified SW Florida as the “Forbidden Zone” http://www.fgcu.edu/CWI/files/Forbidden_Zone_CWI.pdf .
So, come on down. The water is clear, the weather is great and the deals are plentiful. Boating, fishing and our beaches are all top notch.
The Biggest Real Estate Connection Between Two Cities
July 7th, 2010
Sitting on the Bridge At Last
I’ve talked about this idea for years. When I came up with the idea of marketing myself sitting on the Cape Coral Bridge I thought it would be fun to be on the big billboard at the bridge. Well, I finally made it happen. I’m on the Cape Coral Bridge. Isn’t that cool?
The Wealthy Moving to Lee County
July 5th, 2010Forbes Magazine has reported that the wealthy are moving to Lee County.
The report states that one of the favorite locations is Lee County, Florida. Well I did my homework. I checked the numbers on the multiple listing. I found an astounding number of homes sold over $1 Million. In Lee County since April 1, 2010 to today there were 103 homes sold over $1 Million. The Lowest price was exactly $1,000,000 and the highest was $3,250,000.
Ok, now are you a believer? We in the Fort Myers area know that there are great deals and It is a tropical paradise.
Low taxes, warm sunshine and deep discounts on real estate. No wonder IRS data shows the wealthiest among us are headed south to Florida.
Flood Insurance and Tax Credit
July 2nd, 2010WASHINGTON – July 1, 2010 – The deadline for closing on a home and qualifying for the federal homebuyer tax credit ended at midnight, and the National Flood Insurance Programs expired May 31, 2010. But two bills reauthorizing each program received Congressional approval yesterday, though both still need President Obama’s signature to become law, a move expected shortly.
Once the president signs the bills, both extensions become retroactive, meaning the law will not recognize a lapse in coverage for either program.
Homebuyer tax credit
The only thing that changes under the new tax credit bill – The Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act (H.R. 5623) – is the deadline for closing on a home. Under the latest version of the tax credit, buyers had to secure a signed contract by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30, 2010. The bill extends the closing deadline to Sept. 30, 2010.
Short sales, however, can take considerably longer than two months to close. And an onslaught of buyers trying to beat the June 30 deadline proved challenging to Realtors, title companies and lawyers trying to beat the clock.
The National Association of Realtors lobbied heavily to get the tax credit extended, but Congress took the issue down to the wire before eventually approving the change.
National Flood Insurance Program
The federal flood insurance program has general support among lawmakers, but they continue to disagree on the details. As a result, it has expired three times this year, only to be reauthorized after the fact by Congress. Each extension is considered a short-term fix so lawmakers have time to consider a long-term solution.
Officially, NFIP is still on hiatus until the president signs the bill, HR 5569, into law; but once that happens, it’s official again back to May 31, 2010.
© 2010 Florida Realtors®