Category: Orlando Realtors

Bidding in a Hot Market

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Buyers looking for that perfect home in Orlando are finding out that they need to prepare for a fight. Because of a hot market causing lower than normal inventory, hungry buyers are engaging in bidding wars every day. Bidding in a hot market can be a fight and lately, it’s been all about who’s quicker to the punch.  

In a seller’s market, homes sell super fast once they’re listed on the MLS. Getting your offer approved amidst all the competition can be a huge challenge. In this situation, many factors are just out of your control. However, there are certain steps that you can take to make your offer more attractive to the seller.    

When house hunting, you should enlist the help of an Orlando buyer’s agent as opposed to trying to go it alone. Weeding through dozens of homes by yourself that you find on the internet to find one that suits you just isn’t very fun at all. Once you’ve found one that you love, then it’s time to place an offer on it. Many buyers will already have a number in mind but if you’re not sure how much to offer, however, your realtor should be able to assist you in finding the magic number. Experienced realtors can prove to be extremely valuable in this situation by providing the buyer information about the area like recent comparables of other properties in the area.    

Tips on getting your offer accepted, Bidding in a hot market:

  • Get your financing in order. Speak to your mortgage broker or lender before you even start looking at homes. Knowing how much mortgage you can afford in addition to having a pre-approval letter will put you way ahead of the game. You should also know that being pre-approved and pre-qualified are two different things.

The difference between Pre-Approved and Pre-Qualified

  • Pre-qualifying for a loan basically means talking with your lender about your financial situation, income, etc. then the lender will give you an approximate amount of how much you SHOULD qualify for.
  • Pre-Approval includes submitting a loan application together with income statements, a list of assets, a list of expenses, etc. With a complete loan package in hand, your mortgage broker will be able to shop out a loan that would meet your specific needs. It also gives the seller peace of mind knowing that your contract is solid and won’t fall through because of financing.
  • Don’t submit a lowball offer! In a hot market, many properties sell above the listing price. Submitting too low of an offer is the best way to get your offer denied and you may not even get a chance to counter, especially if there’s another competitive offer on the table.
  • Give them a bigger deposit than they asked for. Putting down a larger deposit, allows the seller to see how committed you are to making the deal happen.
  • Eliminate as many contingencies as possible. If the seller has to worry about the buyer selling a home or appraisal value falling short, etc. Then the offer becomes less enticing to the seller. By keeping your contingencies to a minimum, the better your offer will look to the seller.
  • Pay cash. For most people, this isn’t even an option. However, if you’re able to submit a cash offer with a quick close then this will surely get your offer to the front of the line.

Even if you do everything on the list above, it still may not get your offer approved. But by doing as many things as you can to make your offer more attractive to the seller, you’ll know that you did everything in your power to get that offer approved. If it was meant to be then you’ll be living in your dream home real soon. If you find yourself in a bidding war with other buyers, it’s good to know that you have an experienced realtor in your corner.

If you’re searching for a “never say die” type realtor to help you find your Orlando dream house, contact us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/contact/

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Orlando Listing Agents Vs. Buyer’s Agents

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

You’ll probably never hear a listing agent ask a buyer’s agent, what’s the highest amount their client [the buyer] is willing to pay for a property. So why is it that some buyer’s agents think that it’s OK to ask listing agents how low their client [the seller] is willing to go on the price?

I don’t know of any good listing agents that would spill the beans anyway, why would they? When I became an Orlando Real Estate Agent, one of the first things I learned is that there are 3 things that you never reveal in a real estate negotiation…seller’s motivation, seller’s price, and the terms. It would be kind of like showing your cards to the other players at the table in a high-stakes poker game.

I guess you can’t blame buyers for wanting to feel out what the seller’s bottom line is before making an offer in writing. It’s mostly about saving time and effort. If the seller isn’t interested in accepting a lowball offer, then the buyer could save themselves the hassle of preparing a contract, pre-approval letter, etc. After that, the buyer then has to wait and see if it’s been accepted or not.

Although the seller’s “bottom line” as well as the buyer’s “best and final” is eventually revealed to each other, you can’t just skip the first part of the dance that we call negotiating. Sometimes I wish we could cut to the chase because it would save the realtor some time also.

So when a buyer’s agent asks me what my client’s bottom line is. I say “put your best and final offer in writing and I’ll present it to my client”, and that’s when the real negotiating begins.

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New Homes In Orlando Getting More Expensive

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

In 2014 new housing developments in Orlando became increasingly more expensive throughout the year and we can expect to see more of the same in 2015 according to Orlando Realtors. This is in part due to newly retired couples looking for a permanent move as well as vacationers wanting to have a new home away from home.

Prices on new homes in Orange county are scaring some buyers away. In fact, when compared to Lake and Osceola counties, Orange County leads the way in price per sq ft. for relatively the same quality home. Builders say that retirees and vacationers have been able to tap into their investment savings in recent years and use them to reinvest in Orlando real estate.

The rising prices of new homes in Orlando have been evident in both the high end as well as lower-end homes. New home builders see the trend and continually try to offset the higher prices by offering incentives to buyers that struggle to qualify for mortgages, especially the people that lost their homes in the market crash of 2007 to foreclosure or short sale.

Reducing the number of upgrades, less customization on the homes as well as reducing closing costs to a minimum are the most popular ways to discount pricing. Even with builders scrambling to find ways to keep costs down and increase buyer incentives, higher prices may still price many potential home buyers out of the Orlando real estate market.

However, even with the higher-priced homes, closings on new homes in Central Florida overall have continued to increase during the past year. South Orlando seems to be Central Florida’s strongest area for new home building with over 1,200 housing starts in the third quarter of 2014.

Approximately 1/3rd of those homes were in the Lake Nona area development which was the most activity for single-family residences for the quarter. Overall during the third quarter of 2014 builders began building more houses than they had sold.

THE POINTE AT HUNTERS CREEK

 New Homes In Orlando Falling Behind Schedule

This may be the cause for other developments like “The Point at Hunters Creek” formerly known as “Kailey’s Ridge” to fall way behind schedule. This development located in the much sought-after community Hunters Creek was to consist of 134 single-family homes built by both Ryan Homes and Surrey Homes and was expected to have homes for sale by October of 2014.

We’re now in January of 2015 and the new development has only gotten as far as clearing the land and paving the streets. Many potential buyers that have been patiently waiting to secure one of these new homes have opted instead to buy an older home in the community.

 

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Retired Couple Buy Their Orlando Dream Home!

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Couple Finds Their Orlando Dream Home in Hunters Creek

Living in New York most of their lives this retired couple had had enough of the cold and ready to live out their golden years in “The City Beautiful”. After spending time with their nephew who lives in Hunters Creek FL, and after several months of searching in other Orlando neighborhoods they decided that Hunters Creek is where they wanted to live and they were finally ready to shift into buying mode for that specific area.

When a buyer is only interested in one specific area it can be both good and bad from the realtor’s standpoint. The good part is that it doesn’t take long to do a search for all the homes that are available for sale in the area. The bad part is that it usually takes longer to find the perfect home for someone who is only interested in seeing homes in such a relatively small area due to a lack of inventory.

However, it seems that these buyers were being helped by some kind of divine intervention. Just days into showing these retirees homes that were for sale I received a call from a Hunters Creek homeowner needing to sell their home quickly. These distressed homeowners were six months behind on their Wells Fargo mortgage and have exhausted all means of trying to keep their home.

They were in need of completing an short sale on their home and with an approaching foreclosure date, they needed to get it done A.S.A.P. After Googling “short sale experts in Hunters Creek FL”, they found our company and hired us to complete their short sale. The next morning we met with them at home to collect paperwork, get measurements, photos and everything else we needed to get the ball rolling with the short sale. Although the home needed some work I felt it may be a good fit for our retired couple from New York so I brought them to see it that same night.

They fell in love with the Lakefront home in Calabay Cove. My concerns over the needed repairs disappeared when I found out that the buyer was a handyman and actually loved the idea of having something to do! We explained to the buyers that a short sale can sometimes be a lengthy process but they were willing to stick it out in hopes of getting a great deal on their dream home.

Although it was a bumpy road like most short sales, after three months of negotiating with Wells Fargo we received the short sale approval letter and the buyers were able to close on the home just 10 days after we received the approval. The final short sale price that was agreed upon by the lender was $278,000.00. Considering that the full payoff on this 4 bd rm 3 bd rm home was $470,000.00 the buyers were elated to finally close on their dream home….. I must admit that it was also pretty nice to make a double commission.

 

 

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The Time To Sell Your Orlando Home Is Now!

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

If you’ve been wanting to sell your Orlando home but keep putting it off, you may want to stop procrastinating. according to the NAR National Association of Realtors, the housing inventory in the Orlando real estate market is way below average when compared to December of 2013.

When the supply of homes on the market is this low, it puts the seller in a great position for negotiating. Right now, homes that are priced accurately and nicely staged don’t last very long in today’s market. The truth is that if want to make an offer on an Orlando property, you should act fast.

Lately, we’ve been getting multiple full as well as above asking price offers on properties in as little as 24 hours after listing them on the MLS. It’s painfully obvious that right now sellers are in the driver’s seat and have very little competition due to the lack of inventory in the Orlando real estate market. However, with inventory slowly but surely rising, homeowners should act now in order to enjoy the reduced amount of competition that they will have while their home is on the market.

Low mortgage rates are also a big contributing factor to the current real estate market favoring sellers. Interest rates are still low and there are many incentives for those who want to buy now.

Sellers Who Wait Run The Risk Of Losing Thousands

As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. This also holds true when talking about real estate. I remember back in 2007 when the real estate market crashed Nation in what seemed to be from one day to the next. Homeowners and especially investors that were holding on to Orlando real estate thinking they would eventually sell for a huge payday were suddenly scrambling to sell. Then when the banks stopped lending, it all came crashing down.

It wasn’t long before home values in nice Orlando neighborhoods were cut in half and in some cases even less. I don’t believe that we’ll see another market crash as we saw in 2007 anytime soon but I do think that this seller’s market we are currently experiencing will eventually cycle back around to being a buyer’s market. 

Orlando homeowners should keep this in mind if they’re on the fence about selling. Sure it’s possible to eke out a few more thousand if you wait a little longer but it’s also possible that you’ll end up selling your home for much less than you expected by waiting too long.

Find out how much your Orlando Home is Worth

 

 

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