Pool or no pool

Ok, lets talk about swimming pools in Florida.  Maybe it’s because I lived in Alaska for 20 years, but I cannot imagine sitting in my back yard here in Florida during the summer without a swimming pool.  It’s just too hot!

If I did not have a pool, I would do like so many others in the summer and just stay inside.  The pool creates a dramatic difference in your life style.  Without a pool, you tend to stay inside.  With a pool you spend so much more time outside.  That is the main difference, but it’s a big one!

It’s all about lifestyle.  Sure you can add a pool to your home anytime, but think about this:  a 40 ft pool will cost you about $40,000.  However the same pool will probably add about $8000 to the value of your home.  Is that a good investment?

No, it is not a good investment.  So why to people spend that kind of money that they will never get back when they sell?  It’s for the lifestyle.   It’s all about life style.  It’s about how you want to live on a daily basis.

Looking at it from a buyer’s perspective, if a 40 thousand dollar pool only adds 8 grand to the value of a home, then why not get a home with a pool?  An extra $8,000 only adds about $40-45 to the payment.  Where as financing a new similar pool would cost around $350 a month!

Sure there are those who just don’t want a pool, but if aspire to have a swimming pool, to me it’s a no brainer.  Buy a home with a swimming pool.  There is such a vast difference in the life style.  It would be interesting to catch up with those buyers while they are sitting in their back yards this summer (who decided not to buy the home with a pool to save $8000) and ask them if they would have rather bought a home with a pool for an extra $43 a month.

Just an opinion from a guy who likes to live and have fun!  Hope this helps.

If you would like to find great real estate bargains in Navarre, Ft Walton Beach, Destin or anywhere in the Florida Panhandle, go to www.search-panhandle-homes.com

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Don’t miss the boat!!!

It amazes me at the number of shoppers waiting to buy a home because they think if they wait, a better deal will surface.  Let’s look at a couple very important indicators.

 Interest rates are astoundingly low!  Don’t wait for the interest rates to drop to 4% because it may not happen!  We are currently at historically low interest rates.  Just as in the stock market, you risk a lot when you try to pick “the bottom”.   If they do go lower, it will not be by much.  Now is the time to take advantage of the current interest rates!

 If you are waiting for prices to go lower, you may have missed the boat in most cases.  Sure there are some areas of the US where it will be a while before the market stablizes, but in Navarre we are seeing many indicators that show we are leveling out.

 1% interest rate is equal to about $10,000 in price.  If you think prices will go down another $10,000 on the home you are looking at, don’t hold your breath.  Even the experts are telling us the housing market is making a turn around.

In Florida, we have seen home sales rise over last years sales 4 months in a row.  Now we are seeing values starting to stableize.  If a buyer is waiting to see prices fall another 10 grand on the houses they are looking at, the interest rate may go up and kick them out of the game all together.

The point is, that NOW is the time when home values and interest rates have synergistically hit historic lows.  What more could one ask for???

I predict that by the time summer is over, the best bargains and opportunities will be behind us.  Feel free to contact me if you see it differently and I will be happy to look at your numbers.  However the numbers are clear to me that this is the time.  Now is the time to buy.  Don’t think you can out smart the market, cause you might miss the boat!

For great bargains on Real Estate in Navarre, Ft Walton Beach, Destin and the entire Florida Panhandle, go to www.search-panhandle-homes.com

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HOW TO PRICE YOUR HOME TO SELL

Establish market value: The most accurate way to find out the market value of your home is to have a professional Real Estate appraiser to appraise you home. It is customary in some parts of the country to have your home appraised before putting it on the market, but not everywhere.

I never understood why so many sellers do not do this automatically before putting their home on the market. If they sell a car, they book it out. If they sell their jewelry, they have it appraised. Why would anyone selling real estate, price it without knowing its true market value?

In the Navarre and Gulf Breeze areas, an average appraisal would cost under $500. A typical mortgage payment would be over $1000. Do you see where I am going with this? An appraisal costs half (or less) of one mortgage payment. An over priced home will stay on the market for months until the price is reduced to meet market needs. Each additional month is another mortgage payment down the tubes.

If you don’t want to spend the money for an appraisal, the next best thing to establish market value is a Market Analysis from your favorite Realtor. Be sure your Realtor shows you the most recent sales of homes which are similar to yours as well as any pending sales and expired listings (what has not sold). This is where you find your market value.

After establishing your market value, you can compare your numbers to what is currently for sale to see where you are in relation to the other homes for sale. Either way, your home will only sell for what the market will bear. The sooner you price it according to current market values, the sooner you will have it sold.

The next thing you have to know is the market condition. The best indicator for market condition is the supply and demand indicator. How many homes in your price range are on the market and how many are being sold each month. If you calculate less than a 6 month inventory, the odds are in favor of the seller (that’s you).

However, if you calculate more than a 6 month inventory the odds are in the buyers favor. That is the market we have been in for the last 2 years. In a buyers market, a shopper has a large inventory to select from. Many times a shopper has a hundred or more homes to choose from in their price range, they will usually look at the lowest priced homes with the most square footage first.

This is why it is so important to be amongst the lowest priced homes in your category. If your home is priced in the middle of the bunch, you could easily be competing with forty to fifty homes that are priced lower than yours and the odds against you become even greater.

You need to have your home priced within the lowest half dozen in your square footage range. One of our local builders said it best. “Prices are dropping. It’s a race to the bottom and we are going to win.” This builder understood the climate of a declining market.

While most of his competition were “hanging in there”, this builder was able to sell his inventory at prices which seemed low at the time, but are out of reach in today’s market. Here we are months later and most of the other builders still have large inventories. In order to “stay competitive”, the remaining builders have been dropping their prices as the market has trended downward. This is called Trailing the market.

Had these builders been willing to race to the bottom in the first place, they would have sold their inventory months ago at prices much better than they could yield in today’s market. We can take a lesson from this. You do not want to trail the market to the bottom, or do you want to win by pricing it right the first time?

If you have a home in the Florida Panhandle, check out what homes in your neighborhood are selling for at http://www.search-panhandle-homes.com . If you would like a FREE market analysis, contact Jon Payne with Coldwell Banker United, Realtors at 850-259-9765.

Find great real estate bargains in the Florida Panhandle like, Navarre, Ft Walton Beach, Mary Ester, Gulf Breeze, or Destin, go to http://www.search-panhandle-homes.com

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What’s The Deal With Forclosures?

Written by Jon Payne

We have all been reading and hearing about foreclosures popping up everywhere. If you see one you are interested it, there are certain things you need to know. The first thing I would like to clear up is the common misconception many shoppers have that suggests you can pick up a foreclosure for .40 to .50 cents on the dollar.

In a market like we are seeing, you might think banks would be happy to see any offer, even if it is low. However, the federal government strictly regulates how much the banks can lose so don’t expect any low offers to be accepted. An offer within a 5% margin of the asking price has a decent chance of getting accepted. The end of the year might bring some exceptions to this rule.

When submitting your offer on a foreclosed property, you will need to have your financing in line. Every offer must include a pre-approval letter if the property is being financed. If you are paying cash, they you will have to include proof of your funds.

Each bank will have its own addendum’s that they want the potential buyer to sign and add to the offer. These addendums are written to accommodate the laws in all 50 states, so they can be pretty exhausting reading, but do read what you are signing. You will have to sign them if you want your offer accepted.

Another thing about bank owned real estate; they are all sold in “as is” condition so hire a professional home inspector. Most foreclosed properties have the utilities turned off, so when you do your inspections, you will need to turn the utilities on in your name so you can inspect the functionality of the home.

If you are using a lender, things can start to get complicated. All conforming and government backed mortgages like FHA,VA and Conventional mortgages require the home to be in good condition. If the appraisal reveals problems to the home like wood rot, broken windows, or roof damage (to name a few), the lender will not fund the transaction until these items are repaired.

Since the bank will not make any of the repairs, you will have to handle the repairs out of your own pocket or you will have to pay cash for the home. If you decide to handle the repairs, you will have to hire a licensed and insured contractor due to the bank’s liability. In fact, some banks will not allow repairs at all because they just don’t want to be liable for any accidents which could occur on the property during the repairs. To avoid the whole repair issue, ask your lender for a non-conforming product or pay cash for the property.

There are some other points to consider also. Most banks want to close quickly. They watch their bottom line daily. When making your offer, schedule your closing date within 30 days. Be sure your lender (if you use one) is on top of their game because most banks will charge the buyer a fee for every day it takes to close after the original closing date.

And one last thing: When your offer reaches the bank (seller), it will probably be put on a stack of hundreds of files. The people who work on your file have strict guide lines to follow. They work each file the same, over and over. You just don’t have a face with a system like this. There is no humanism here. No emotion, just files and they have to be a certain way or they get kicked back.

As long as you are prepared for what the banks are looking for, and you have an experienced Realtor, you can have a smooth transaction. You just have to play by their rules. There are lots of great deals on Real Estate out there. Right here in Gulf Breeze, Navarre and Ft Walton Beach, there are many great deals on the market. Many of them are bank owned foreclosures. To find great real estate bargains in Gulf Breeze, Navarre, and Ft Walton Beach, go to http://search-panhandle-homes.com.

One more important tid-bit: Bank owned properties are not “Short Sales”. Short sales are a completely different type of real estate purchase and carry a whole new set of rules. Actually, each short sale transaction has its own set of rules. Short sales are much more complicated and time consuming than foreclosures. If you are going to deal with a bank, it is much easier once the home has been foreclosed on.

Jon Payne is a Licensed Florida Real Estate Agent with Navarre Beach Realty, Inc. You can reach him by email at jon@jon-payne.com or on his cell at 850 259-9765. http://Jon-Payne.com

For great real estate bargains in the Florida Panhandle, to go to http://search-panhandle-homes.com.

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