Category: Orlando Realtors

The Best Short Sale Realtors in Orlando

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 Orlando is one of the prime destinations for home seekers in Florida and attracts home buyers from all over the country. It has a very hot real estate market right now. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Orlando, you will be helped a great deal by the services of a top brokerage like Orlando Realty Consultants. They have been in the business for a very long time now and have gained a lot of experience. Being a full-service brokerage, they provide a range of services to their customers.

 Orlando Short Sales

A Short sale is a situation when a home needs to be sold for less than the full payoff of the mortgage note. This can happen due to a number of reasons, which mostly include some kind of financial hardship. In the case of a short sale, it is best to enlist the help of a short sale realtor. This is a real estate agent that specializes in doing nothing but short sales which means that they are very experienced in the short sale arena.  They have the resources needed to get the short sale done and usually have a buyer lined up to buy the house as soon as the short sale is approved.

 The end result of the short sale is that the buyer gets the house at a discounted price while the seller is able to sell his house and avoid having a foreclosure on his or her record.

 Short sale negotiation

 The negotiation of a short sale of a home can be a long and arduous process. It involves a lot of legal as well as paperwork. It can get very complicated for someone to do it themselves and is best to take the advice of an expert. Even if a seller wants to do their own short sale, they would still need to have a licensed real estate agent list the property for them as part of the bank’s criteria. Short sale negotiators provide all the necessary advice and bring know-how as well as experience to these situations.

 Depending on the actual situation at hand and the condition of the house, the short sale can typically be completed in a few months.  Experienced short-sale realtors do their best to finish it as soon as possible. They try their best to uphold the interest of the seller. However, in certain cases, delays might occur because of several reasons such as a clouded title or renovations needed to make the house habitable.

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Is Orlando Real Estate Still a Good Investment?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Of late, there have been several bits of speculation and buzz that indicate that the Orlando real estate market is booming, with reports indicating decreased foreclosures, rising real estate prices, and a rising number of real estate sales. What we must ask ourselves is how stable is this current trend, and are we in promising times or living in a bubble that could end up in an economic collapse in times to come.

What’s changed over the last few decades?

In today’s economic and financial scenario, bank finance isn’t as readily available for Orlando real estate as it was decades before. As individual investors, individuals are hard-pressed to secure bank financing for real estate investments. What then happens, is that the small investors in a hurry to make a sizeable profit invest their own funds, often investing entire life savings to purchase real estate in order to reap the benefits in due time.

However, this doesn’t turn out well in most cases, as these investors find themselves struggling with statutory regulations such as tax assessments and payments, insurance premiums, and other fees involved in purchasing real estate. As a result, they get trapped in a state of limbo, finding themselves without their life savings, and with a compulsion to sell at a loss to recover this money.

Additionally, investor groups are backing end-users into a corner by securing real estate using cash, as the end-users cannot afford to pay all associated fees and taxes since they cannot secure bank financing. Hence, investors will end up driving out these end-users or renting out properties. In the case of rent, there is no appreciation in the value of the property, as property values will improve only if there are people willing to purchase them and start living in them. With the constantly rising prices, these practices place a lot of financial strain on the already struggling end-users.

Why reports don’t tell you things the way you need to see them

Despite the recent reports about reduced foreclosures and rising prices, why is it still a bad idea to invest in Orlando real estate?  This is because the reports don’t account for foreclosures that are dismissed due to lack of prosecution, which will not be accounted for until they are filed for again. Another possibility is that banks and similar financial institutions have a role in delaying foreclosures, simply to avoid the added burden of tax assessments and insurance.

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FHA’s Back To Work Program Giving 2nd Chances

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 

 

FHA’s Back To Work Program

As an Orlando realtor, part of my job is to help potential home buyers get approved for a mortgage. Unfortunately, aren’t always able to qualify for the best mortgage programs like an FHA [Federal Housing Administration] loan because of negative credit events like having a foreclosure or short sale on their record.

Recently there’s been some great news for ex-homeowners that find themselves in this situation. FHA, formed in 1934 and part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is waiving its 3-year foreclosure awaiting period. All homeowners with FHA case numbers assigned after Aug. 25th of 2013 that have gone through a bankruptcy, short sale, foreclosure, loan mod, or a deed-in-lieu can now apply and potentially get approved for an FHA mortgage.

The FHA has the role of being the insurer of mortgages made by lenders that are FHA approved. Since the FHA’s inception, it has insured loans in the entire U.S. in addition to U.S. territories as well as the District of Columbia and holds the record as the world’s largest insurer of loans at thirty-four million loans.

Basic FHA Mortgage Guidelines:

1- Loans must be made by an FHA approved lender

2-Borrowers must be U.S. citizens

3-Borrowers must have a  minimum credit score of  at least 500

4- A down payment of at least 3.5% of the contract price is required on a purchase

5- Income is verified via W-2 or federal tax returns

Within the last several years the FHA has been steadily tightening their requirements since the housing downturn. However, since August 15 of 2013, the FHA has made the decision to ease up on their requirements when it comes to borrowers that have ” experienced periods of financial difficulty due to extenuating circumstances”. Now known as the “Back to Work Program”, the FHA has gotten rid of it’s former waiting periods that were typically followed after a negative credit event.   Here are some examples of negative credit events that can affect someone trying to get approved for an FHA mortgage loan.

* Foreclosure

* Short Sale

* Deed-in Lieu

* Bankruptcy Chapter 13

* Bankruptcy Chapter 7

* Loan modification

* Forbearance agreements

It seems that there are actually some compassionate people running this company. The FHA has come to the realization that sometimes bad credit situations are beyond the homeowner’s control and that someone’s credit doesn’t always reflect a person’s willingness or ability to pay there mortgage. One can only hope that other lending organizations will follow the FHA’s lead.

 

 

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Orlando Foreclosure Discounts Shrinking

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Orlando Foreclosure properties just aren’t the bargains that they used to be. In August of 2009, the average discount on a foreclosed home was about 24%. As of September of this year, it’s now down to about 7% compared to what a home buyer would’ve paid for the same property in a conventional transaction.

Orlando, which is one of the cities that was hit the hardest by the foreclosure crisis has such a strong demand right now for properties that the discounts are pretty much gone unless the house is in need of major renovations. Our company specializes in Orlando short sales and I can tell you that just about every one of our listings receives multiple offers for the listing price or above.  It’s extremely rare these days that we get an offer that’s lower than the listing price because buyers know that it’s a very competitive market right now. As a matter of fact, about half of our properties end up selling for over the listing price.

Regular homebuyers [not investors] are the main reason for the increased demand for Orlando real estate. Everyone wants to take advantage of the historic affordability, which means the combination between lower home prices and great mortgage rates. This doesn’t mean that you still can’t get a good deal in Orlando, but be prepared to submit multiple offers on multiple properties. It’s because of this that it’s much more work to be a buyer’s agent where you have to show multiple homes and submit multiple offers before you find what your buyer is looking for. It’s very common these days to go see a house that has been listed for less than 24 hours and find out that the home already has multiple offers on it.

Orlando Re-Habbers Still Turning a Profit

The average home buyer wants nothing to do with remodeling a home after they’ve purchased it. This is why there’s soo much competition for Orlando homes that are move-in ready. However, for the home buyer that is willing to roll up his or her sleeves and dive into some major home repairs, there’s still a profit to be made. There are some lenders that will complete the renovations on their own foreclosed properties before putting them back on the market, but most of the time they just want to sell them as-is.

Homes that are in need of repairs can still be good investment opportunities if you know what you’re doing. Using an experienced Orlando realtor to help with your search is highly recommended. It’s also important to know what repairs need to happen and how much the repairs will cost before you commit to buying a fixer-upper. Although profit margins are quite a bit smaller than they were a few years ago, a full-time rehabber can still make a decent living from flipping houses.

 

 

 

 

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Home Renovations That Draw the Highest Price

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 

Investing your money into a property that you intend to resell can potentially earn you a nice profit. However, not all home improvements will guarantee you a profit. It’s crucial that you know where to invest your money so that it will increase the resale value of the home when you go to sell it. Throughout the years, I’ve rehabbed 300+ Orlando homes and through my own experiences both as an investor as well as an Orlando real estate agent,  I’ve compiled a list of home renovations which have given me the best return on my investment dollars.

 

Here are the top renovations that you can add to an investment property that will get you the highest return on your money.

The Kitchen- The kitchen is the most used room in the house and should be one of the main focal points of a re-model. Quality cabinetry, counter tops and appliances are a must in a kitchen. No home buyer will want to buy a home and have to remodel their kitchen when they move in so I suggest not cutting any corners when it comes to the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that you should get gold plated fixtures and top of the line appliances. However, you shouldn’t buy the cheapest materials either. Try to stay somewhere in the middle price range. I like to go to the large hardware chains and see what’s on clearance [usually at the front of the store]. By doing this, you should be able to get some high end materials for mid range prices.

The Bathrooms- Bathroom remodels come in at a close second to remodeling the kitchen. They are the second most used room in the house and should be updated on any remodel. A new vanity, toilet and fixtures are a must unless the existing ones are in “like new” condition. There’s no bigger turnoff to a potential buyer than a dirty and out dated bathroom. It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune especially if you do some shopping around just like you should do for the kitchen. Any money that you can save on a remodel means more money in your pocket when it’s time to sell.

The Floors- The floors of a home is usually the first thing a potential buyer will notice as soon as they walk in.  If the house has tiled floors and they look half way decent, then I will usually just have them cleaned by a tile cleaning company. A good tile cleaning company will clean the tile as well as the grout joints leaving the floor looking like new. However, if the tiles are in bad shape or they look tacky then you have no choice but to remove and replace them. If there’s carpeting, then 99% of the time it should be replaced with either new carpeting or tile. There’s a myth that tile is much more expensive than ceramic tile but this isn’t always the case. And even if it is a bit more expensive than carpeting, it might be worth the extra expense to have tile instead of carpeting. In my experience buyers will always prefer tile over carpet.

Paint- There’s nothing that will yield a higher return on your money than a fresh paint job. A new paint job will brighten the entire house as well as hide minor imperfections on the walls. It’s important to stick to neutral colors when painting a house that you intend to sell. Some investors make the mistake of using too many colors thinking that it will somehow impress a potential buyer but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Just because you think that you have great taste in interior design, it doesn’t mean that it’s true. Not only that, but if a potential buyer doesn’t like the colors on the walls this could be enough reason for them to not make an offer. My suggestion is to stick to one or 2 colors for the entire interior of the house. I like to paint the walls off white and the trim pure white. By using only one or two colors throughout the whole interior the house will look new, elegant and best of all… it’s much cheaper for labor as well as materials.

 

 

 

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