Tag: Orlando real estate expert

Orlando Short Sale Realtor, A labor of Love

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

I remember when I  became a FL REALTOR back in 2004, the gentleman speaking at the podium that day, I don’t recall his name but something that he said that day resonated with me and still does until this day. He said, “when practicing real estate don’t make it about the money,… you’ll make more money”. What he was really saying was to always,… ALWAYS put the client’s needs first in any real estate transaction and by doing so you will eventually make more money.  The word will get around that you are the type of agent that goes “above and beyond” for their clients and people will seek you out for all of their Orlando real estate needs.

Well, here I am eight years later telling you that he was totally right! The only marketing that I do, if you want to call it marketing, is writing this blog about real estate [which I love doing!].  Most of my clients are referrals from past clients and my office is running at full capacity, it’s because of this that we are constantly on the lookout for Orlando short sale superstars to recruit.

When I take on a new short sale listing, the law says that my fiduciary responsibility is to my client. However,  I feel that a realtor’s responsibility is to look out for everyone involved.. the seller, the buyer, the lender as well as the buyer’s agent. It’s like I tell the agents in my office “Everyone involved in the transaction needs to walk away satisfied with the results”, and if they practice real estate with that mindset they will be successful.

Orlando short sale specialist… not just a job

Making both sides of the closing table happy… there’s no better feeling in the world.  Being a good real estate agent is kind of like being a good teacher, you really have to love it to be great at it and there’s just no way you can fake it. Have you ever had a horrible teacher in grade school or high school? I’m talking about the teacher that just doesn’t care and it’s painfully obvious to everyone in the classroom. I’ll bet that there’s at least one teacher that just popped into your mind as you were reading that last sentence. Well, imagine having a realtor represent you that just doesn’t care about you. Sure they go through the motions of what a realtor is supposed to do and they do just enough to scrape by.

That’s because that type of realtor chose the wrong profession to be in and they’re miserable. I’ve known many of these agents over the years and have even made the mistake of hiring a few for short periods of time. These agents will eventually show their true colors and everyone around them will know that their heart is just not in it. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying that they are bad people what I am saying is that these people will never be successful real estate agents and sooner or later will realize that they’re in the wrong line of work.

When choosing a real estate agent to represent you and do your short sale, make sure to do your research. I’ve said this countless times and I will continue saying it. Doing a short sale on your home will be one of if not the most important transactions in your lifetime. Make sure that you choose an Orlando short sale realtor that absolutely loves what they do!

 

Orlando short sale expert

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Homeowners Insurance Tips for Orlando home buyers

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Getting the best HOI rates for Orlando real estate

When shopping for homeowners insurance [HOI] quotes, you should seek out companies that have been in business for a while that have high customer satisfaction ratings and good reviews. Many potential buyers make the mistake of just going with the cheapest company they can find.

As an Orlando realtor, I always recommend to my clients to use a company like  Net Quote. This is a company that will provide you with quotes from several different highly rated homeowners insurance companies. Using a company like this to research homeowners insurance can save you a lot of time and money.

Many insurance companies raise their rates when they suffer a financial crisis like the one we’re still recovering from. However, insurance companies still have to compete with other insurance companies for your business which means that most of them are cutting much better deals for new policyholders than for existing policyholders.

Typically after people purchase their HOI and close their house, people tend to forget about homeowners insurance and will just continue to pay whatever premium the insurance company asks for even if it goes up every year. What homeowners should do is research different insurance companies every time they are up for renewal to make sure they are getting the best rate available.

6 Tips for keeping your HOI rates down on Orlando properties

1- Continue shopping for better rates- Every time your policy renewal date approaches, check companies like NetQuote.com to see if they can find you a better deal.

2- Try Bundling– Consider bundling your Homeowners policy and your auto policy with the same insurance company. By doing this you may be able to cut your premiums by up to 15%.

3-Make sure you don’t have too much coverage- It’s very common for policies to have inflation protection provisions that will automatically increase your coverage amount. Now that construction costs have fallen, these increases are not always justified. Find out what your house is actually worth make adjustments to your policy if can. If you’re able to lower your replacement value, it could save you up to 10% on your premiums.

4-Make sure your reputation is as clean as possible-If you’ve been denied coverage or they want to charge you an arm and a leg because of claims you’ve made in the past, check your insurance report for mistakes at choicetrust.com; it’s free if you’ve been denied coverage. Insurance companies make mistakes all of the time especially when it comes to record searches on clients.

5-Stick with high deductibles– I always recommend getting a policy with a high deductible for 2 reasons. 1st, your premium will be much less and 2nd, If you file a claim for every little repair that comes along, it can drive your premiums up by up to 15%. Use the money that you’re saving on those premiums to cover the small repairs.

6- Avoid Flood Zones– Before you buy your home, you should be aware if it’s in a flood zone. If you live in a house that’s in a flood zone, then you will probably want to make sure that your policy covers flood damage. You could save money and not get flood coverage but then you run a big risk if your house ever gets flooded. My advice, avoid flood zones.

If you’re in the market for an Orlando property and you still have a million questions about homeowners insurance or anything else regarding the purchase of a house. Contact us for a free consultation with an Orlando real estate expert.

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Florida incomes and Orlando real estate continue to rise

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Floridians income increase along with their confidence

 

Florida has shown substantial gains on three different areas, Real estate prices, income and consumer confidence. Much of this can be attributed to the overall housing market in Florida. Orlando real estate is a great accelerator when it comes to creating jobs and increasing local incomes, then the next logical thing that happens is a confidence boost. It’s just human nature, when people are doing OK financially they not only feel better about themselves but they become more confident about how much they can spend when house hunting.

I think It’s good that Floridian’s consumer confidence is at it’s highest point in 5 years but potential home buyers still need to be careful. The Orlando real estate market is constantly changing and right now it’s on the rise as it has been for the past 2 years or so. This doesn’t mean that you should buy just any house listed on the MLS. The truth is that many Orlando properties that I see listed are seriously overpriced. Sometimes this is due to the seller wanting to sell for the absolute highest price in the neighborhood because sellers typically believe that the house where they live is special compared to other houses in the same neighborhood, again…just human nature.

 

Short Sale Lenders are sometimes to blame for overpriced real estate listings

As short sale realtors, we are sometimes told by the client’s lender how much to list the property for. Sometimes, no matter how many years of experience we have in selling Orlando real estate, they still think they know more about the local market than an experienced Orlando realtor. I’ve argued with negotiators until I’m blue in the face as far as “fair market value” is concerned and they will still try to tell me how much the property should be listed for. However I quickly learn, usually on the first conversation, whether arguing my point will do you any good. Lenders that absolutely insist on telling me how much to list a property for… in my area of expertise,  I do just that.

9 out of 10 times, the result is that the property spends a lot more time on the market than it should have. With no offers or contracts after several weeks or even months of the property being listed, short sale negotiators will eventually figure out that they’re asking price needs to be lowered, then…I do just that and the property gets sold.

 

 

Sell A house in Orlando

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Banks are becoming more experienced with Orlando short sales making things easier for realtors

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Banks are getting much faster at the Orlando short sale process

Short sales have had a bad reputation in the Orlando real estate market for several years now. Realtors didn’t want to take on short sale properties either because they didn’t know what was involved and were afraid of getting in over their head or because they knew exactly what was involved and they didn’t want to commit to the hard work that’s involved in completing an Orlando short sale. Buyers didn’t like them because of the time that it would take to hear back from the bank about their offer that was submitted. Sometimes a potential buyer would submit a contract and have to wait three or four months just to find out that their offer wasn’t accepted, and all that time they spent waiting to hear back from the bank could have been utilized searching for other properties. This was extremely frustrating for everyone involved.

Lenders also must have felt frustrated because the truth is they just weren’t prepared to take on all these short sales. They weren’t prepared to handle short sales period… let alone hundreds of thousands of them coming at them at once. I believe that this is probably one of the reasons why loss mitigators would often tell agents that they didn’t receive certain documentation over and over again, or they would say things like we needed these docs in a certain order or a month later they would tell you to send everything again because it needs to be updated. Any experienced Orlando short sale realtors that are reading this post right know exactly what I’m talking about. In my opinion, these were stall tactics because lenders didn’t know how to get these short sales processed in an efficient manner.

Orlando short sales are being fast tracked thanks to experienced negotiators

Short sales are now being processed much faster than was the case just a year ago. Lenders have come a long way in putting systems in place to make things move more smoothly for the homeowner as well as the Orlando realtor processing the whole thing. I feel that the biggest change, however, is because of the short sale negotiators having much more experience in dealing with short sales now. At the end of the day, Big banks don’t run things, people do, and for some people, it’s easier to say that they didn’t receive something or come up with some other type of lame stalling tactic rather than to admit that they didn’t know what they doing.

Lately,  I’ve noticed a huge difference in the way that short sale negotiators handle short sale files. They’ve gotten better in every area; from ordering the BPO to negotiating with their investors and even getting extensions on payoff letters. I have about a dozen or so negotiators with several different lenders that I just love working with because “they get it”, they know how this business works and they will do whatever it takes to get the deal done.  Don’t get me wrong, I still have conversations with some short sale negotiators that frustrate me to no end because they are clueless about the Orlando real estate market or real estate in general yet they still try to tell me how much I should list an Orlando property for, but for the most part it’s gotten much much better.

stop foreclosure

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Orlando Real Estate remains strong, despite a dip in prices at the end of summer

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 

Summer’s gone and Orlando Real estate takes a drop

Prices of Orlando real estate dropped slightly last month for the first in a year. Don’t panic Orlando homeowners, this happens every year at this time. The reason for the drop is mostly due to the end of the peak of the summer buying season. Two facts remain true, Orlando real estate inventory is low and demand for great Orlando properties remains high. As long as these factors remain a part of the Orlando real estate market, sellers will be able to get top dollar for their Orlando Home.

Other factors indicating a strong Orlando Real Estate market

Orlando homes are selling faster and for more than they did a year ago. Studies show that Orlando homes are spending less than 80 days on the market before coming under contract and selling for almost  97% of the listing price. A year ago, Orlando Realty was selling for less than 95% of the listing price, and these properties were listed on the MLS for over 100 days.

Great mortgage interest rates are still being offered by lenders. The average interest rate currently being offered for Orlando home buyers is at 3.78 percent as opposed to a year ago when homebuyers paid an average interest rate of 4.26 percent. This is a huge incentive right now for potential Orlando home buyers and anyone interested in buying real estate in Orlando should definitely take advantage of these historically low-interest rates.

There are more regular listings in the Orlando real estate market than has been in years. Although Orlando’s short sales and REO’s still rule Orlando’s real estate inventory right now, there is another quieter group that is not desperate to sell their Orlando properties.  Believe it or not, everyone one in three homeowners owns their house “free and clear”. This group as well as homeowners with very small mortgages on their home are able to ask for top dollar on their Orlando home and they don’t care if it sells or not. Their way of thinking is “I will sell for the right price and if not then I’m not selling”. I’ve had several clients like this over the years, and homeowners like these actually help to maintain property values up in their neighborhoods because their listing prices remain high and they really don’t care how long it takes to sell.

Right now is  a great tome to sell your Orlando Home

Considering all the factors in play right now with Orlando Real Estate, it’s a great time to sell your home. Whether you need an Orlando short Sale done or you’re o of the few and fortunate people that own your property Free and Clear. If you’re interested in seeing how much your Orlando property will sell… click on “How much is my Orlando property worth?” or you can come and see me for a free consultation and I would be happy to sit and talk with you.

Realtor in Orlando, FL

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields