Jacksonville Beaches Real Estate

Homes sales have been quite brisk the past 30 days! Unfortunately more than half of those sales have been preforeclosures and short sales. The market is clearly price driven. The investors have come back out and first time buyers are finding deals galore! It's a great time to be a buyer in Jacksonville! Unfortunately, those that aren't in a short sale situation, those trying to get a fair price for thier homes, these are not such good times. If the seller is trying to compete with these foreclosed homes, good luck! The price of the short sale homes are usually 20% or more below the other homes in the neighborhood, naturally pulling the value of the homes in the entire area down with it. This is a tough time to try and sell a house at full value! If you're a buyer that's been sitting on the fence, it's time to JUMP! Interest rates are still low--inventories are HIGH--foreclosures are at an all time high! What in the world are you waiting for?? Let's g...

In the spirit of Halloween... This is a post worth repeating: I continually hear people say that their realtor bugged them for weeks to get them to list their house with them. They finally agreed to list it and they never saw the realtor again!! I'm not exaggerating! Check out this story.... New example of a “list em and leave em” real estate company Wednesday, May 02, 2007JANESVILLE, Wis. — A couple checking out a house for sale were shocked to discover the 55-year-old homeowner dead in her bed. Authorities said foul play was not suspected. Real estate agent Linda Chabucos-Galow stood in the dining room while Justin and Colleen McKeen walked through a house Monday night. Before long, she heard Colleen McKeen scream."I thought, 'What's wrong?' Maybe it was a dead mouse or something," Chabucos-Galow said.But then she peered into the bedroom and saw the body of Linda L. O'Leary. An autopsy determined O'Leary had been dead for two to three weeks, Rock Cou...

I've been hit in the face with the harsh reality of what really happens when an investor faces foreclosure on the home(s)he/she bought as rental homes. I've had the unpleasant task of informing renters that the home they're living in is in foreclosure. This is really a bad situation. The renters have been paying their rent on time and have a lease that is good through next year. Unfortunately, they will have to move right away if the home is foreclosed on. They are caught up in the housing nightmare that is engulfing our market. They are the innocent bystanders that are going to suffer through no fault of their own. At least my tenants know!! I have been hearing way too many stories about tenants having Sheriff's officers show up at their door telling them to GET OUT. It's gotten so bad, several cities have begun to refuse to evict these tenants without prior notice. SOMETHING must be done on a national level to ensure that these tenants have ample time to find ...

Times are tough for a lot of people today. The stock market continues to drop, consumer confidence in the Feds continues to drop, food prices continue to rise, gas prices are high and it just costs a LOT of money to survive today! Are you afraid you might be forced to miss a house payment? Have you missed one (or two or three)? Right now, right this minute, CALL YOUR LENDER. If your interest rate is above 7% please consider refinancing your home. If your credit is less than perfect, ask your lender about a FHA loan. The latest bailout package has help for you in it! I think it may be December before they are able to see exactly what that help will be. I think that you should contact your lender right now, today. They know that they are going to have to help you in some way, shape or form. They will work with you. Please don't lose your home due to inaction. Call your lender. Try to work something out with them today. If you're at your wits end and feel like you need ...

The developments in the finance and mortgage world come as no real surprise to those of us in the trenches. Currently there are 15,000 homes on the market in Jacksonville and of those, 20% are distressed sells. I define a distress sell as either a preforeclosure, short sale, or REO property. A REO property is owned by the bank and has already had all foreclosure proceedings completed. There are 2604 condos listed in MLS and 13% of those are distressed properties. It didn't take an MBA from Harvard to know that something had to give. When buyers can't get financing--Realtors are out of business. When lenders require a credit score of 720 and at least 20% down--Realtors are out of business. When homes drop by 15-20% in value in 6 months--Realtors are out of business. I now have 5 short sale listings. They are located all over town! I think that this is why I really got into Real Estate. I am trying to help alleviate the pain and pressure that a homeowner suffers through whe...

Wow! This is a powerful post and I thought it was worth sharing. Original Post Via Danilo Bogdanovic-Real Estate Consultant -Loudoun and Fairfax County: Not all sellers understand that their asking price is the ultimate determination of whether they will sell their property or not. Not only does the asking price affect if you'll sell, but when and for how much. The longer it takes you to get to the correct fair market value asking price, the greater your Days On Market are and the more of a negative stigma buyers will have of your property. This can translate into lower offers and ultimately, a lower selling price. Sure, how well your agent markets the property matters. But even the best agent in the world can't fool today's buyer and a good buyer's agent. Today's buyer has access to way too much information and data to overpay for a property. And a good buyer's agent will provide comps and their personal expertise to even the most uniformed buyer so that they ...

The Beaches area continues to feel the wrath of Tropical Storm Fay. It's not like she's in a big hurry to get out of here or anything. Quite the contrary! Like a guest that's over stayed their welcome, it's past time for Fay to go. She has been lurking off of the coast of Northeast Florida for two days. When she finally headed West today, she brought buckets of rain with her. Along with the buckets of rain, she brought 40 mph winds with gusts up to 55 mph. It's been a rough afternoon here at the Beach. The damage so far is minimal. There have been numerous reports of flooded streets and a few trees down, but all in all, we've been lucky. We've been spared any real serious damage. Property damage is very low considering how bad it could have been... I wish the story ended here. Jacksonville Beach rarely has to worry about tropical systems. When we do, we take it pretty serious. Unfortunately, one person lost their life in Neptune Beach today. Thr...

We almost made it! We were so close and 6 months into it, but we couldn't take it anymore! We finally had to give up. We found a house 3 days later, made an offer, they countered, we accepted and we were off to the races! We are going to close August 18th. So, this process, from initial offer to closing will take exactly 19 days. Can you believe it? We waited 95 days for a response from the lender on our first offer on the short sale. They countered and we waited 60 days to hear about that. Then we ran into MAJOR issues with the Home Inspection and the VA wouldn't appraise it high enough. Our deal finally sputtered to a stop 6 long months into it. I took another class on short sales and the consensus was that a short sale averages 5-7 months from initial offer to closing. Unfortunately, most short sales never make it to closing at all. Before the process can be finalized, the home goes into foreclosure, or the buyers give up and move on to a property that's not a s...

The Senate passed the new housing rescue bill today and President Bush is expected to sign it in just hours. The bill goes into effect October 1st. Who's eligible to participate? Qualified borrowers must live in their homes and have loans that were issued between January 2005 and June 2007. Additionally, they must be spending at least 31% of their gross monthly income on mortgage debt to be eligible for the program. They can be up to date on their existing mortgage or in default, but either way borrowers must prove that they will not be able to keep paying their existing mortgage - and attest that they are not deliberately defaulting just to obtain lower payments. Before homeowners can get FHA-backed mortgages, they must first retire any other debt on the home, such as a home equity loan or line of credit. Borrowers are not permitted to take out another home equity loan for at least five years, unless it's to pay for necessary upkeep on the home. To get a new home equity loan,...

Can you believe we are STILL trying to negotiate a deal with the loss mitigator?? We have been working on this for FOUR MONTHS! Now, we found out that the house has to have a NEW ROOF ($6500)!! OMG. What next? We are still trying to negotiate a lower price, to cover the cost of the roof replacement! You know what the lender is saying: AS-IS...You are buying the property AS-IS. We can't even get financing without a roof! Good luck to us. I'm not so confident that we can make it happen. I'll keep you posted...

I promised you I'd give you a heads up when we finally heard from the lender about our short sale offer. WE FINALLY RECEIVED A COUNTER OFFER from the lender this week! We immediately countered and hopefully they'll take our offer. The listing agent warned me that it might be 2+ weeks before we hear from the lender again! We rec'd a response/counter offer from the lender on day 70. If we hear back from them in 2 weeks, that will mean that it's been 90 days to get acceptance of our offer! TEXT BOOK SHORT SALE! Unfortunately, it will probably be 30 days after that before we close! Short sales are a great way to save money when you buy a house. But you have to understand that it might take MONTHS until you close. This all depends on how far along the process is when you find the house. If it's still early in the process--be prepared for a 3-5 month wait until closing. The interest rates are creeping up at a pretty fast clip. Please don't continue to wait too...

Please take a moment to look at this fabulous tour of my favorite listing at the Beach. If you'd like more information, please give me a call. Virtual Tour Jacksonville Beach Gem

For those of you that have wondered if it REALLY takes 90 to 120 days to close on a Short Sale, I'm here to tell you that it does!! At least that long! We put an offer on a property on April 3rd and here it is June 3rd (almost) and we have NOTHING from the lender! I have talked to the listing agent at least once a week since this game began and she is on the ball, but the lender isn't! They told her last week that they would look at the offers on this property on June 10th and try to have an answer by the end of June! agggggggghhhh . My poor buyer is about to blow a gasket! I warned him, but the reality is hard to accept. I never dreamed that it would REALLY take this long. Looks like this is going to be a "text book" short sale. 90 days until we find out if they accept our offer and then 30 days until we close. I'm not real crazy about these short sales. Patience never was my strong suit. Can you get a good deal on a home that's a short sale? ...