RECENT BLOG POSTS
One result of our over-supply of homes for sale is that many homesellers have turned into landlords, for good or for bad. Tightened mortgage regulations and economic hardships have increased the pool of available renters so there's a good chance a seller looking to rent their property will succes...
10/12/2009
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Recently, I have had 2 mind-numbing experiences with permits. Yep, the bane of a homeowner's existence. Permits issued by a municipality are actually a good thing as they provide: Uniformity of building codes conformity to building codes an acceptable level of safety in construction a way to trac...
09/29/2009
August stats are in and they aren't half bad. We have not fropped through 28,000 units yet, which I would have liked to see. I still believe our "healthy" Tampa Bay area levels are around 15,000 - 18,000 homes for sale. So we are slightly less than double our normal inventory, which is still appl...
09/15/2009
Foreclosures seems to rule the real estate headlines these days, and rightly so. The banks who offered mortgages to anyone with a pulse (and even some WITHOUT!) fostered an anything-goes atmosphere of real estate speculation, which culminated in the miserable situation we now find ourselves in - ...
09/08/2009
Having quite a few listings stretching from 1 BR condos to 5 BR SFHs, I have gathered a few simple ideas to help sellers better PRESENT their homes and POSITION them to seller quicker and for more money!!! These things can be done ideally before your listing appointment with your realtor, but if ...
09/01/2009
Wow, what a busy week! I had an epiphany this morning when I was contacted by a client concerning a permit issue on their home. I simply went to PinellasCounty.org, found the building dept, called them, and had a list of permits emailed to me w/i 10 mins. Issue resolved. However, I realized that ...
08/26/2009
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Well, the summer rush has come to an end. Much like the peak we saw in 2006, we may have just experienced another peak (I believe future trends will bear this out) in our 2009 home buying trend. Our market has been having meaningful month over month gains, especially in our monthly ABSORPTION RAT...
08/17/2009
The Pinellas County Property Appraiser's office has just updated their database with preliminary values for 2009. Not surprisingly, values have gone way down across the board.Many tax-paying homeowners w/ the Homestead Exemption believe their taxes should go down because their assessed values wen...
08/10/2009
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So you're ready to move to the water. Waterfront homes in the Tampa Area range from less than $100k to the millions. The most common denominator of all these homes is that they utilize a seawall to protect their land from water incursion and erosion. Whether you're a seasoned home buyer or a novi...
08/03/2009
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June stats are in and the numbers are much better than we have seen in a while. Some bright spots are: Inventory fell below 30,000 properties for sale for the first time in YEARS The sales rate for homes and condos in the tri-county TampaBay area was over 10% for the first time in years! Months o...
07/28/2009
As an experienced Real Estate consultant with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Clearwater, FL, I am approached daily by buyers and sellers who have questions about the current housing market. I have created this blog to answer various Real Estate questions concerning the home/condo/townhouse/vacant land market, address property tax or homeowner's insurance issues, suggest vendors that offer SOLID buying/selling services, and discuss all aspects of the Real Estate industry.