Orlando Realty’s Weekly MLS Market Report

Orlando Realty’s Weekly Report for Home Buyers and Sellers

On behalf of Orlando Realty and our entire team of Orlando real estate professionals, we are proud to introduce a weekly report of market statistics of what’s happening in the world of Orlando real estate. This report provides up-to-date information to help educate Florida Home buyers and Sellers so that they can get a feel for the market and make educated decisions when it comes to buying or selling Orlando Real Estate.

Our research is done by our Top Orlando Realtors using Florida’s Multiple Listing Service.

Orange County from 4/27/2012  through 5/4/2012.

*  Number of Short Sale Properties Listed –                      83

*  Number of Short Sale Properties under contract-       187

*  Number of REO Properties [Bank Owned] Listed –   384

Number of REO Properties under contract-                  126

Number of Regular listings (By Owner)-                        205

*  Number of Regular listings under contract-                 203

*  Total Homes Sold in Orange County-                                 397

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Hunters Creek Florida Voted one of America’s Best Neighborhoods!

Hunters Creek, FL comes in at number 21 for best places to live in the U.S.

Twenty-one is a pretty good number considering all the great places there are to live in the entire US. As a resident and business owner in Hunter’s Creek, I’m very proud of my neighborhood, but Hunters Creek Real Estate has definitely had its share of ups and downs. When the crash of 2007 happened, houses that were worth 500k were all of a sudden worth somewhere in the low 200’s, I know this all too well because that’s exactly what happened to me.

Our house actually appraised at 580k in 2006 and ended up all the way down at 220k appraisal value in 2008. Although that was a hard fact to face, we really loved the beautiful and kid-friendly neighborhood, and that was priceless to us.

The Parks of Hunters Creek

Having two young boys, one of the biggest attractions for us was all the clean and perfectly manicured parks. You can definitely tell that when they started building Hunters Creek 25 years ago, they had young families in mind all the way. There are playgrounds, soccer fields, baseball fields, football fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, and racquetball courts for residents to enjoy. Hunters Creek also has youth sports programs for just about any sport you can think of for children wanting to participate. There are also gazebos and community centers that can be used for private activities.

Shopping and Restaurants

Hunters Creek is conveniently located close to several good restaurants right there in The Village. Wherever you live in Hunters Creek, you’re only a few minutes away from a healthy selection of family restaurants, pubs and there’s even a Farmers market. If it’s a mall your looking for, try going to the Loop. It’s just minutes away and it has a wide array of stores as well as a movie theater.

Shingle Creek Trail

 

Over the years we’ve seen enough animals in our backyard to start a zoo. We’ve seen deer, turkeys, river otters, bobcats, foxes, wild boar, bald eagles, sandhill cranes, and owls just to name a  few. With ponds everywhere, most residents are able to go fishing, kayaking, or canoeing without even having to drive. Although we’ve seen small alligators in the water, the larger ones are removed by animal control and taken to Gatorland.

Shingle Creek Trail is a beautiful conservation area that consists of hiking trails, bike paths, lakes and there’s even a

trail that travels along the side of Shingle Creek where people go kayaking, canoeing, and fishing. We often go bike riding through the trails because my boys love it.

Hunters Creek Real Estate is in High Demand

Hunters Creek Realtor

Being an Orlando real estate broker I can tell you that there is a serious demand for houses in Hunters Creek right now.  It’s also a good time for people that want or need to sell a property because of the steadily increasing property values. The top-rated schools in addition to everything else I mentioned make Hunters Creek one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Orlando. The good news is that you can still find a great deal in Hunters Creek.

If you’re ready to see some great homes in Hunter’s Creek, feel free to contact me on my Cell @ 407-902-7750 or you can email me here.

ORC IS HUNTER’S CREEK BASED REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE

 

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Orlando Short Sale Closed After 3 1/2 Years Battling with Lenders!

The longest Orlando short sale in our company history.

I had just had to share this story about an Orlando short sale that we’ve been working on for well over 3 1/2 years.

We started this file in December of 2008 It was a pretty common story; She had a 1st mortgage with GMAC for 434k and a second with Bank of America for 116k and she also owed her HOA $5,000.00 at that point [now $15,000.00].  The big problem was that even though she owed about 570k since she purchased in 2006, her house was only worth 180k at the point when we took her on as a client in 2008.

Throughout this process it was a matter of getting all the stars to line up at once , which when your dealing with 3 different debtors is no easy task. Buyers get tired of waiting, lenders wanted new bpo appraisals done every 6 months, the HOA didn’t want to budge and we had to stop her Orlando foreclosure several times.

No Attorney Necessary.

In the past three years we’ve had 7 solid contracts, 9 bpo appraisals and we stopped the foreclosure sale date a total of 6 times.s, we eliminated her debt. We closed last week with a cash offer for 200k and to top it all off, we got the lenders to give her $7,000.00 back at closing.  By the way, she never once went to see an attorney which means probably saved another 7 to 10 thousand dollars.

Doing the short sale was the best decision for her.

In the end my client got to live rent free for 3 1/2 years and was able to save up some money and turn her life around. We found her a nice rental in Downtown Orlando and she now lives comfortably within her budget. How’s that for a bailout plan?

It’s true that we had to work work many times harder than a typical short sale file just because of constant updating of expired short sale docs  alone, not to mention all the buyers we lost along the way because they got tired of waiting on an approval.

However, when you’re in the short sale business, there is no greater satisfaction than to know that you’ve helped someone solve a huge problem in their life and get a fresh start.

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Orlando Short Sales Overtaking Foreclosure Sales

 For the first time Orlando short sales are becoming more popular than sales out of foreclosure.  As a matter of fact, in Florida short sales have outnumbered bank-owned home sales since July.
 
Lenders are favoring short sales more and more these days, with good reason. Short sales have proven to be faster and more lucrative process than foreclosure. Short sales accounted for 24 percent of all home sales nationwide while foreclosure sales represented 20 percent.
   

Top 3 reasons why lenders favor short sales over foreclosure sales

 
•    Taking a home to foreclosure is a long, drawn out process and can take up to a couple of years sometimes. Even then, there are soo many things that can go wrong if things aren’t processed correctly by the attorneys, which happens more often than you would think.
 •    Lenders can avoid paying a ton of money in legal fees. You can’t foreclose on a home without attorneys. I’ve seen attorney’s charge as high as $15,000.00 for  1 single foreclosure case.
 •    Better sales prices on Orlando properties. Statistics show that banks get higher and better offers when they short sale as opposed to the foreclosure sale. Many times it won’t even sell at the auction and it ultimately becomes the banks problem…Again!
 
In the end it’s all about the almighty dollar.
 
Lenders are finally realizing that Orlando short sales are a win for everybody. Mortgage companies are even offering large cash incentives to homeowners who agree to do a short sale. I’ve gotten some of my clients up to $20,000.00 back at closing from their lender. How’s that for a bailout plan?
 

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Butterfly Destroys the Roof on an Orlando Property! Would Your Homeowners Policy cover This?

Orlando Homeowners Insurance Policies are getting cut left and right

Citizens Insurance is a Non-Profit state-run insurance company started in 2002 because of the fact that private insurance companies were leaving Florida due to the risk of hurricanes.
It used to be that when nobody else would cover your Orlando home or business, you could always go to citizens for a policy.  So when citizens sent out a letter to their policy holders late last year informing them that they would no longer be covering carports, screen rooms, patios, pool cages or awnings- expensive items to get fixed – many people were alarmed…Including me.
Even Florida based home insurance companies that we thought were Florida’s future are selectively cancelling policies in higher risk zip codes.

Here are the hard facts

  • State Farm is planning on cancelling 125,000 Home owners policies in addition to the policies they’ve already cancelled
  • Nationwide is dropping an additional 60,000 home owners policies
  • The number of people that report  that Homeowners insurance is too expensive is increasing by the day.
  • Newly formed home insurance companies just can’t keep up with all the policies being cancelled by the larger companies
  • It’s harder than ever for Floridians to find quality Homeowners Insurance at a reasonable rate.
  • Both Citizens and the Florida Hurricane catastrophe fund have reported their concerns about not having the cash needed to pay for a major Florida Hurricane.

Get involved Floridians!
As tax payers and voters, we can make a difference by getting involved. Let’s keep the pressure on the Florida legislative representative to make something happen that would bring more Insurance companies to Florida and keep are rates affordable.

Let  your FL Legislator know how you feel!

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