Tag: Orlando Realty

Orlando Re-Habbers Cleaning Up

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Re-Habbing Homes in Orlando has become a very popular business model lately

With Orlando short sales on the rise and inventory becoming scarce, many Orlando re-habbers are cleaning up. The truth is that most people who are looking to buy a house, don’t want to have to deal with any repairs once they move in, or before moving in. Most potential home buyers just want to move their stuff and family in and not have to worry about the kitchen or bathroom that needs remodeling. For property investors who dedicate themselves to remodeling houses, this is great news.

We have several Orlando re-habbers that have been coming to us for years always looking for their next project. Although there are still some risks involved, if you do your research correctly there’s big money to be made.

Here’s a list of things you need to be aware of if you’re planning to re-hab an Orlando property.

* Stay away from houses needing major repairs.  Unless you’re an experienced re-habber, don’t buy a property that needs any major structural repairs such as rewiring the electrical system, major plumbing repairs, foundation damage or severe fire damage.

*Get a home inspection as soon as you sign the contract. Getting a home inspection will cost you around $300 but can ultimately save you thousands by exposing some big ticket repair items that would have gone undetected without the inspection. Once your inspection report is complete, you can use the report to further negotiate with the seller or bank to lower the price even more.

* Never, ever try and turn a non-deal into a deal. What I mean by that is, some new investors are soo eager to start their 1st re-hab project, that their judgment gets clouded and they bend the numbers to make it look like they are making a good investment. [ kinda like when you fall in love with that sports car you’ve always wanted at the dealership, and you make up situations in your mind in order to justify the horrible decision you’re about to make]

* Consult with an Orlando Real Estate Expert to do some research for you. The most important thing to do when you’re planning on re-habbing a house is to make sure that your numbers are correct. There is nothing worse than buying a property at the wrong price, spending a month fixing it up and then finding out that you have to pay $5,000 to get it sold because you didn’t take the time to speak with an experienced Orlando realtor.

Jenny Zamora, Lic RE Broker

If you’re in the market for an Orlando Investment property,  feel free to use our MLS search tool to search of all the great investment properties throughout the entire state of Florida. You can also contact one of our Orlando Realty Experts for a free consultation.

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Orlando Home Prices Increase Despite Fewer Sales

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

There are fewer listings in Orlando than ever since 2005 according to a report released recently by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

The Orlando Real Estate market [Orange and Seminole counties] had 8,642 active listings for last month. There hasn’t fewer listings since September of 2005. With fewer homes competing for buyers, the median price went up from $115,000 in March to $116,000 in April.

“The overall median price has increased for three consecutive months, while demand has created inventory declines for the last 18 months” said Stephen Baker, chairman of the Orlando-based association. “Add in today’s prices and the lowest mortgage rates since the 1950s, and now we have a market with buyers competing for available homes.”Both REOs and short sales have seen an almost 6% increase in sales prices over the past year while normal sales prices have decreased 2%. In April traditional sales account for about 45% of Orlando Real Estate’s overall sales. Just one year ago ago traditional sales made up about 1/3 of overall sales.
Although interest rates on a 30 year fixed mortgage have gone up slightly [4.02%], these rates are still among the lowest historically. In February interest rates were the lowest ever at 3.92%.

With a fewer amount of listings on the Orlando Realty market, this will obviously impact local sales volumes. In April, sales were down 3.4% as opposed to 4.5% one year ago. Orlando homes are also spending much less time on the market as opposed to a year ago with a higher sales price, about 95% of the asking price as opposed to a year ago when home were selling at about 91% of asking price.

What it all means to Orlando Real Estate Today?

After looking at all these statistics from recent and past Orlando home sales,  mortgage rates, etc., it can be a bit confusing about what it all means to Orlando Realty today if you’re not an experienced Orlando realtor.  In a nutshell, the Orlando Real Estate market is getting stronger and more stable everyday.

With all the cash incentives for Orlando Short Sales and with the mortgage relief act of 2007 still in play, it’s absolutely the best time to short sale your Orlando home.

For Orlando Home buyers, you can still get a great price on a home and take advantage of the lowest interest rates in history. Feel free to use our Orlando home search tool and in just seconds you will be able to see all the great properties in Orlando.
For traditional sellers who want or need to sell their Orlando home, they no longer have to worry about getting insulted with low ball offers. Find out what your Orlando home is worth here.

 

 

Ask me anything, I’m here to help.

 

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Bank of America Increases Incentives for Orlando Short Sales

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 Bank of America Stepping up their game to help out Orlando homeowners

On Tuesday Bank of America Corp.  launched a nationwide program that offers increased relocation payments to delinquent mortgage customers that care able to qualify for short sales.

B of A  tested this program in Florida last year, offering payments of $2,500 to $30,000 to help homeowners re-locate. A short sale is when a lender allows a homeowner to sell a home for less than the amount owed on the mortgage.

When B of A bought out Countrywide Financial in 2008 the company inherited a bunch of bad loans and has been exploring new ways to work with delinquent homeowners outside of foreclosure. In March, the bank stated that it would offer a limited number of  homeowners facing foreclosure the option to lease their homes.
In the last 2 years Bank of America customers have completed 200,000 short sales and another 30,000 short sales in in the first quarter of this year.

Bank of America, which inherited loads of bad loans when it bought Countrywide Financial in 2008, has been exploring ways to work with homeowners outside of foreclosure. In March, the bank said it would offer a limited number of customers facing foreclosure the ability to lease their homes.
Since October, Bank of America has rolled out multiple initiatives to speed up short sales and to prevent foreclosures. Last month, it announced plans to approve some short sales in less than 20 days.
Part of the qualifying process is to work together with the bank to obtain a pre-approved sales price. Another pre-requisite is that the homeowner must start the short sale process by the end of 2012 and completed by Sept 26, 2013. Short sales are determined case -by-case, depending on the value of the home, how much is owed, etc.
The bank was also waiving the difference between the unpaid mortgage and amount of the short sale, which allowed homeowners to walk away without still owing the bank a big chunk of money.
Also, Florida homeowners who didn’t enroll in the test program can now apply for the new plan.
If you have a mortgage with Bank of America and you’re considering an Orlando short sale, now is the time to see what their willing to offer you. Set up a free consultation with an Orlando short sale specialist and find out your options

 

 

 

 
FREE short sale services

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Orlando Short Sales Soar as Home Foreclosure Sales Fall

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

Short Sales Outnumbering Foreclosure Sales in a Big Way.

The Orlando foreclosure crisis is nowhere close to being over, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter every day. Orlando short sales are a win-win for everyone involved. Short sales [which occur when homeowners sell their homes for less than what they still owe], also close much faster than foreclosure sales, and they relieve lenders of the responsibility of maintaining vacant homes as well as not having to worry about the properties getting vandalized.

It makes you think,… with soo many benefits in it for the lenders the question is why weren’t they doing this the whole time?

 New Developments in Orlando Real Estate

There have been some changes made in the rules of Orlando short sales lately. For starters, lenders no longer have a choice. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this month that mortgage servicers will be required to review and respond to short sale offers within 30 days and make final sale decisions within 60 days.  All of this is supposed to take place in June of this year, meanwhile, lenders are scrambling to train enough staff to handle the demand for new short sale files.

A Win-Win Situation for Orlando Homeowners

By going the short sale route both the lenders as well as the homeowners win. Homeowners get to walk away from debt-free, the lender re-cooperates some of their money back and everyone gets to move on with life.

Doing a short sale is usually the best option for people. Statistics just from our own office indicate that 90% of the time homeowners choose the short sale route after consulting with one of our Orlando short sale specialists and all the options have been explained to them. With all the incentives being offered by lenders these days, it just makes the most sense in most cases.
With lenders being much better equipped to process short sales now, it’s absolutely the fastest way for borrowers to walk away from their distressed properties. Also, credit repair is much easier to achieve when you’re dealing with some late payments on your record as opposed to a foreclosure.

Cash for Keys for some homeowners.

For many homeowners, banks are offering cash incentives for the homeowner to agree to a short sale. We’ve gotten our clients from $3,000.00 up to $20,000.00 back at closing. This is a tremendous help for homeowners in making the transition into a new homeless financially painful.

Short Sales are better for Orlando neighborhoods.

Banks are terrible property owners, foreclosed homes often stay vacant for months and even years, meanwhile, the home deteriorates due to lack of maintenance. To make things worse, vacant houses might as well have targets painted on them in certain neighborhoods. Thieves go after things like fixtures, appliances, copper pipes, etc. Banks are unknowingly cannibalizing their own assets with foreclosures.
Short sales put new owners in vacant homes much faster than foreclosure sales.  This is good news for Orlando neighborhoods that have been hit hard by the mortgage crisis. New homeowners are typically pretty excited about being new homeowners and the first thing they usually do is work on the curb appeal of their new home. Many times this creates a domino effect and before you know it, surrounding neighbors will also want to improve their curb appeal.


Ask me anything, I’m here to help.

FREE short sale services

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields

Growing Demand for Orlando Real Estate is Absorbing Shadow Inventory

Posted on by Jenny Zamora

 

Orlando Realty Sales are slowly overtaking the number of distressed properties coming on to the market

Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo says “The fear is that the inventory of delinquent and foreclosed loans will be released onto an already weakened market,” , explaining the findings of a new report conducted by the Florida Industry Data and Analysis department. “But the reality appears to be different, even here in Florida where distressed properties make up a significant portion of the market.”

Lenders have no reason to flood Florida’s real estate market with more homes especially if it ultimately affects their profit. Think about it, if the Orlando real estate market gets flooded with homes all at once then this would drive prices down significantly. Many people thought that lenders were holding inventory back on purpose when the true cause of this hold up was because of all the robo-signing issues they had to figure out.

Tuccillo says, “We looked at the recent history of distressed property listings and transactions relative to normal market data, as well as estimates for the shadow inventory, and came to some conclusions about the likely course for the future.”

 

These are the findings of recent studies done using data from the Florida MLS

* Even though Orlando Florida remains one of the Country’s hardest-hit areas for distressed property sales, foreclosure sales keep dropping while Orlando short sales continue to steadily rise.

* Prices for all residential properties including both distressed and normal property sales have been steadily increasing.
Orlando Realtors have learned how to cope with distressed properties in a way that stabilizes the market. It’s no longer an issue whether the  property is in distress or not.

* Currently, the number of distressed property sales [Orlando short sales and REOs] is more than keeping up with the amount of distressed  properties [90 days or more behind] coming on to the market.
 
 * The number of Orlando foreclosures and REOs were significantly lower in February of 2012 than one year earlier, suggesting slower shadow inventory growth.
 Distressed properties in Orlando will be a common trend for many years to come.  It will be so common that “distressed property” will be considered just another property type to a potential buyer.
 
Orlando Real Estate Broker

Let's Keep In Touch!

New ORC Form Lead

"*" indicates required fields