Tag: Orlando Real Estate

Big-Name Brokerages Don’t Always Mean The Best Realtors

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

When I started my career as an Orlando Realtor back in 2004, I started working for one of the big-box brokerages thinking that it was a good way to get started in Orlando real estate and become a successful realtor. Working for a nationally recognized brokerage franchise can be great for new-bee real estate agents. They are constantly training new agents on how to prepare a listing agreement properly, how to use the MLS, create CMA’s, etc. I think it was a great experience for me as a new agent just learning the ropes.

With that being said, I also experienced the negatives of working for a big-box brokerage. The reason that everyone knows about national brokerage franchises is because of the massive amount of marketing that they do nationwide. These brokerages have a large budget to spend on marketing so they stay pretty busy. The problem is that many times these brokers get so busy that they have trouble keeping up with all the buyers and sellers that are contacting them to buy or sell a house. Unfortunately, sometimes this means that the potential buyer or seller ends up getting either poor service or no service at all.

It was then that I realized that it was time to branch out on my own. At first, it was tough as it is with starting any new business. However, through hard work and perseverance, I made it happen. I was fortunate enough to realize early on that people really appreciate personalized service when it comes to buying or selling a house. I mean think about it,… buying or selling a home is or will be one of the most if not the most important transactions of a person’s lifetime. I learned that if you do your job by providing the above-and-beyond type of service to people then you will be successful as an Orlando real estate agent. The Best Realtors believe that if you make it is not about the money, you make more money…it’s that simple. A happy client will tell their friends and family about what a good job their realtor did for them and spread the word. This translates into more clients which translates into increased income.

I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve gotten calls from people saying that before they found me, they called so-and-so realtor from a large brokerage and didn’t even get a callback!

Finding The Best Realtors

We’re now fortunate enough to be in a position where most of our clients come by way of referrals from past clients. If you want the find the best realtor to sell or buy a home, don’t just pick the biggest named brokerage, look for realtors with proven track records.  Spend some time looking on Google type in terms like “Top Orlando Realtors” or “Orlando real estate agents”. This will give you a great place to start you search. Once you’ve picked out a few from the top results, start interviewing until you’ve found one not only with a great track record but one that you like. I wrote an article a while back called “A Guide To Interviewing An Orlando Realtor”  Which has some great information on finding the best realtor for you.

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Orlando Home Builders Association Changes Name and Moves to a New Location

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

The Metro Orlando Home Builders Association wants to turn a new leaf and several changes are underway as part of its efforts to re-brand itself. The professional trade association that leads the Orlando real estate industry was established in 1953. Since then, it has governed and regulated several aspects of the city’s housing market including Orlando short sales, services of listing agents, and Orlando’s public-education programs to name a few.

The association revealed some of its re-branding initiatives on February 27, when it revealed plans to change the name from Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando to the Greater Orlando Business Association.

Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando moves to new headquarters

On the same day, the association also broke ground on what its new headquarters is going to be. The association is currently headquartered at 544 Mayo Avenue, Maitland but will ditch the 30-year-old venue and move to the new office in 1000 Sanford Avenue as soon as the construction work is done. The new headquarter will sit at the site donated by Charles Clayton III – the previous president of the Home Builders Association and also a long-standing member of the association. In addition to a changed name and a changed location, the association is also set to sport a more environment-friendly and greener office.

Word is, that the building at 1000 Sanford Avenue will file for a green certification with the regulatory bodies, including the Florida Green Building Coalition.

President Nathan Cross talks about right-sizing offices

Nathan Cross, President of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando said the association wants to right-size its offices so that the changing needs of staff, as well as the real-estate business, could be better matched. Moving to a new office was part of the right-sizing efforts.

Ensuring construction projects will create new jobs for construction workers. According to listing agents in Orlando, new opportunities for the local material suppliers. With new infrastructure development projects underway in Central Florida, including the SunRail passenger system, the real estate market of Orlando is expected to bring in worthwhile opportunities for architects and engineers.

The Home Builders Association has been an important part of the real-estate scene in Central Florida – participating in and regulating important industry events and initiatives through its councils and committees. How the re-branding is going to affect its reputation and standing in the market remains to be seen. https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/

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Why Do Some Lenders Take Longer Than Others To Sell Foreclosed Homes?

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

A community’s chances of a speedy recovery from a hung-over Florida housing market not only depend on how many foreclosed homes they have in the neighborhood but even more importantly on which lenders own those properties.

Working as a short sale realtor in Orlando, I can tell you exactly what banks are the best ones for doing short sales as well as which ones make me cringe as soon as I hear their name in a conversation. Now, things tend to change a bit when are talking about bank-owned homes. This is when the lender takes a home through the foreclosure process and ultimately ends up owning the property after it goes to public auction. Once they own the property, it becomes an REO [real estate owned] which they will then list with a local realtor to try and get it sold.

You would think that lenders would try and get the property sold as soon as possible to avoid any further losses that they’ve already suffered. However, this is not always the case. Many times a bank-owned property will sit vacantly and abandoned with no sign at all of an attempt on the bank’s part to market it and get it sold.

Some realtors believe that it’s a strategy by the lenders to avoid flooding the market with properties again which would cause a dip in prices so they only release a certain amount of properties over a pre-determined amount of time. Others will tell you that it’s because the banks expect the Florida real estate market to continue improving and they want to hold out in order to try and capitalize on higher sales prices.

If that truly is the case then I believe that lenders are taking a huge risk in holding out to sell in a hotter market. For one thing, you should never ever depend on the appreciation. This is something that I learned a long time ago when I first started investing in Orlando real estate. Getting into a real estate investment for the sole purpose of expecting the market to get hot then cashing out is what got a whole lot of folks into trouble in 2007.

Not only that but houses that just sit vacant will continue to rack up homeowners association fees, property taxes, risk of vandalism, as well as code enforcement fines if the home is in some way in violation of county code enforcement or safety issues. Also, the longer a house sits unattended the deeper it will fall into disrepair.

For some reason, the smaller lending institutions appear to be a bit more nimble when they deal with foreclosures. It’s probably because they’re only dealing with a fraction of the number of properties that the big lenders are.

 

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Mistakes to Avoid when Flipping a House

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 With Orlando Real Estate in high demand again, experienced investors are taking advantage of these almost perfect conditions for rehabbing houses. Even new investors are turning out in record numbers to try and cash in on flipping a house. Rookie investors will always make mistakes on their first re-hab property just like I did when I first started back in 2004.

Here’s a list of the most common mistakes made by rookies when flipping a house and how to avoid them.

Trying to make a NON-DEAL into a DEAL

Some investors allow themselves to be caught up by emotion. They want to buy an investment home soo badly that they rush and end up buying a house that’s over-priced because they let their emotions take over. When trying to flip a house for profit, let cold hard facts take the lead, not emotion.

As a rule of thumb which has served me well over the years is to never, ever buy a house for anything more than 70% of the home’s repaired value. Paying more than this amount can lead to smaller profits or even a loss.

Underestimating your budget for repairs

home repairs

This is usually the most common mistake made by new investors. Another rule of thumb that I use when rehabbing a house is to take the amount of how much you think it will cost to repair the house and add $5,000.00 to it. Someone that has never renovated a house before will always underprice the cost of repairs needed to get the house ready for the Orlando Real estate market. You should always enlist the help of a general contractor to give you an accurate amount of what you will spend on the renovation. You need to factor this amount into your offer before making your bid.  

Trying to do the work yourself

New investors tend to fall in love with the idea of themselves doing all the work. They picture themselves remodeling the bathroom, painting the whole house, re-doing the landscaping, etc. and they will be done inside of a week, just like on their favorite house flipping show. Trust me, it’s best to let the pro’s handle the majority of the work load. Your time will be better spent looking for the next deal.

Taking too much time to complete the repairs

For each month that you own the property there is another month of carrying costs that you have to pay. Between the mortgage, insurance, property taxes and utilities it can add up much faster than you think. Carrying costs will not only take a monthly chunk out of your profits but can also cause you to take a loss. When you sign an agreement with your contractor, make sure that he commits to a deadline in black and white. You can also try to squeeze in a clause that charges your contractor a daily fee for everyday that the project goes past the deadline. This will keep your contractor motivated to finish the job on time and keeping you on track to get the home back on the market A.S.A.P.

Trying to Sell it on your own

Some newbie investors tend to think that they can sell the property on their own to avoid paying realtors commissions. Big mistake! You should list the house an experienced Orlando realtor that has a proven track record in working with investors. A realtor will not only fight to get you the highest price possible, but they will also assume the responsibility of making sure that everything gets done smoothly… or they don’t get paid.

Your goal as an investor should be to buy a house at the right price that you can quickly then turn around and sell for a profit. You should never let your emotions involved and become attached to any home. Always be willing to walk away from a potential deal, especially when it’s a NON-DEAL.

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Lake Nona Medical City Making a Huge Impact on Orlando Real Estate

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

It’s been referred to as the new chapter in the history of Orlando. Lake Nona Medical City is becoming a monumental landmark not just for Orlando but as a premier location for medical care, research as well as education. Meticulously planned out, it represents an obvious strategy to build a focused cluster of the world’s most sophisticated medical treatments, education, and research in Central Florida.

Over the next ten years, some of the country’s top hospitals, research institutions, and universities will call Lake Nona Medical City home while enhancing economic development and as well as build a job creation machine for Orlando. Also, speaking as an Orlando Realtor, I firmly believe that it will continue to positively affect Orlando real estate.

Lake Nona’s Medical City Economic Impact Could Exceed That of Walt Disney World!

Many people say that Orlando’s Lake Nona medical facility will produce a boost in the local economy that will exceed that of alt Disney World when it opened its doors in 1971. How on earth can that be considering Disney World’s Orlando location currently employs over 60,000 people?!

The reason is that Lake Nona’s 600+ acre “Medical City” contains a combination of some of the world’s most brilliant medical minds together with biotechnology-driven health care facilities. Located just 10 minutes from Orlando International Airport, this cluster will be an economic freight train for Central Florida.

The Lake Nona Medical City will bring over thirty thousand jobs to Orlando and will have a projected 7.8 billion dollars on the local economy over the next 10 years. This doesn’t include the small businesses that are and will continue springing up around the facility.

Some of the facilities located in Lake Nona Medical City

*UCF’s new health sciences campus at Lake Nona. This 50+ acre campus will employ over four hundred full-time and part-time employees.

*The Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute spent over $85 million on its state-of-the-art research center and will become home to three hundred of the country’s top scientists and staff.

*Veterans Affairs Medical Center is expected to serve over 400,000 veterans and is also the national site for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Simulations Center for Excellence. The total cost for building this facility was in the neighborhood of 665 million dollars and will employ more than 2,000 people.

*The University of Florida will have a 100,000-square-foot biomedical research facility worth over 61 million dollars.

It’s pretty amazing when you think about all of these medical and biomedical facilities located in one Florida community. This is great news for Orlando as well as the state of Florida. One thing is for sure the jobs that Lake Nona Medical City will create as well the small businesses it will help will do wonders for the local economy as well as continue to fuel the Orlando Real Estate market.

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