Is your Orlando Realtor a part time Real Estate Agent?

Many Orlando Realtors have second jobs

The Income and business of Orlando Realtors is said to be growing after many years of decline, according to the 2012 national association of realtors member profile the median income of a realtor rose 2.3% to $34,000.00 in 2011, which is the first overall gain in over nine years. Licensed brokers typically earned $48,400.00 in 2011, while the median for a sales agent was $27,200.00.

My first reaction when I read this was shock and disbelief. Then I realized that many Orlando realtors only work part time as realtors. Agents that earn such a low income from buying and selling Orlando real estate have other obligations and other employment that has nothing to do with being an Orlando Real estate agent.

In my opinion, there is no way that you can be an Orlando Real Estate Broker part of the time and be successful. To be a successful Orlando realtor you have to absolutely love what you do. And if you don’t love it, guess what, your clients will know.

Personally, I can’t see myself doing anything else but being an Orlando Real Estate professional. I love Orlando and I love helping the people of Orlando with all their housing needs both Sellers and Buyers, especially distressed sellers that need are in need of an Orlando Short Sale Expert. There’s no greater satisfaction in this world than to know that you’ve helped someone to get out of a huge problem and get on with their life.

If you love being an Orlando Realtor, you’ll never work a Day in your Life

NAR [National Association of Realtors] members that have been in business for 16 years or more are averaging $50,200.00 per year…[16 years!!?]. To be a broker for 16 years and only making $50,200.00 doesn’t make much sense to me either. If you put all all of your effort into being a great Orlando realtor for that many years you should be making a much larger yearly income.

I think what happens to some agents is that they start losing their love for being a top realtor and they just stop trying their best. Once this happens in any occupation it starts getting to the point that you actually start hating your job and just kind of go through the motions as opposed to doing your job with passion and enthusiasm.

I personally have had agents working for me that I’ve seen this happen to. It doesn’t mean that they were bad people, it just means that they weren’t cut out to be a top Orlando real estate agent. Life is just too darn short to do something that you really don’t like to do.

Top Orlando Brokers and Agents

Orlando real estate Brokers and agents putting in over 60 hours per week earned around $81,000.00 per year with only 17% of realtors earning over $100,000.00 per year. These are the go-getters that put 100% of themselves into what they do and love every minute of it.

Being a super successful Orlando Realtor means living your life at a frantic pace and it seems you are being pulled in a hundred different directions because everyone wants a piece of you… It truly is a Great feeling!

 

Jenny Zamora, Lic Orlando RE Broker

 

 

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A typical work day for an Orlando Short Sale Specialist

It’s all in a day’s work for an Orlando Short Sale Realtor

Being a successful Orlando short sale realtor involves many things. For one thing, working with a short sale listing is a lot more work than a traditional listing. Listing the property is just the tip of the ice burg. There’s a mountain of paperwork involved that needs to be updated every 30 days, so I guess the correct term would be “mountains” of paperwork because short sales can take several months to complete and sometimes even up to a year, depending on the lender.

Daily checklist for a Top Orlando Short Sale Agent

1- Check emails- These days most realtors and most negotiators prefer to communicate by email and when you are handling upwards of 100 short sale files, this means hundreds of emails to read. [Daily] 2- Follow up with the short sale lenders over the phone- This is a very tedious task and can take several hours of your day, but it is a necessary evil when it comes to processing short sales. It’s not uncommon to spend up to 45 minutes on one file just trying to get the right person on the other end of the phone to see how the file is moving along. 3- Check on approaching foreclosure sale dates with the Orange County Courthouse- It’s always good to ask the short sale rep about pending auction dates. However, a lot of times there is a communication breakdown between the lenders, lawyers and the courthouse and unfortunately, that’s just the way it is. This is why at Orlando Realty Consultants we have someone that is in charge of calling the Orange and Osceola county court houses and finding out what the latest information is on each and every case. Many times we inform the lenders of an approaching sale date before they even know about it. 4- Creating accurate CMA’s- With the ever changing Orlando Real Estate market, it’s extremely important to make sure that the properties are priced correctly in order to ensure success with a short sale. Pricing the property too high or too low will only drag things out and can sometimes push the bank to just flat out refuse entertaining a short sale. 5- Scheduling the BPO’s- The BPO [Brokers Price Opinion] is a very important part of the short sale process. The BPO is almost always performed by a local realtor. Whatever the BPO comes in at is the point of negotiation between us and the lender. 6- Negotiating with HOA dues and other 2nd lien holders– It used to be easy to get an Home Owners Association to accept a massive discount on what’s owed on a client’s delinquent dues. Not any more! HOA’s are now notorious for being difficult to negotiate with. We’ve had countless cases where closings have been delayed because of waiting on the HOA’s to send us a simple payoff letter, Even for a full payoff. 7- Coordinating Closings- Having a great title company helps a lot. However there are still many things that fall on the short sale realtor such as scheduling inspections and making sure that everything runs smoothly with all parties involved on both the buyer’s and seller’s side. 8- Update our Short Sale Clients- To us, this is one of the most important things on the to do list. Here at Orlando Realty Consultants, we understand that our short sale clients are going through a tremendous amount of financial and emotional stress because of their situation. This is why we keep our clients informed about everything every step of the way. The more you know about something then the less you will fear it or stress out about it, that’s just human nature. Our clients depend on us to help them through one of the most important processes of their lives and this is something that we take very serious. Well, there you have it folks, a peak into the day of an Orlando Short Sale Expert.   If you need help with an Orlando Short Sale or just some free advice from an Orlando Real Estate Expert, contact us, we’re here to help. Jenny Zamora, Lic RE Broker
Jenny Zamora Broker

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The days of Low Ball Offers on Orlando Real Estate are Long Gone!

Buyers are realizing that they have to Pay the Price if they want a quality Orlando Property

Orlando Homebuyers have had the upper hand since 2006, but today’s reality tells quite a different story, sellers are back in the drivers seat. Prices of Orlando Realty have been rising steadily much like many other parts of Florida and inventory is way down.

The problem with some Potential buyers is that they have trouble accepting the market has changed and they continually miss out on good deals because they bid too low. These days you have to go above the asking price to get taken seriously, and even then you might not get the house you’re after.

Some buyers come into my office thinking that the Orlando Real Estate market is the same as it was in 2008 and 2009 when sellers were desperate to sell their homes. Sellers are no longer desperate and they know that they now have the upper hand. The days of submitting low ball offers are over.

A typical Orlando Seller considers a low ball offer to be anything below 90% of full asking price while on the other hand Buyers feel that offering 80-85% is a reasonable offer.

Orlando Buyers are starting to get the “Big Picture”.

Some people are the type to stick to their guns even if they’re wrong about something, however the majority of Orlando property buyers are starting to realize that if they want to get their hands on a quality piece of Orlando Realty, then they have to pay the price.

 

Jenny Zamora Broker

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Orlando Re-Habbers Cleaning Up

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.

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Growing Demand for Orlando Real Estate is Absorbing Shadow Inventory

 

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

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