Archive for September, 2007
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
The Reserve at Tuscawilla is one of the nicer gated golf communities around Orlando. $699,000 will buy you a 4188 sq/ft 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom cul-de-sac home with pool, spa and 3 car garage. Not bad for this well developed and maintained community.
I did a little digging and realized that this particular home has decreased in value by 12% compared to this time last year. However, the property has increased in value by 58% over the last 5 years. Anyone who has been to the Reserve at Tuscawilla knows that it’s a fine community that will continue to be a top notch area to have a home in near Orlando.
Listing - 316 Heatherwood Ct. Winter Springs, FL 32708 (map) MLS# o4787319 by Cheri Hulke
Posted in North Orlando, Real Estate for Sale | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 7th, 2007
IKEA is coming to Orlando, opening on November 14th, (although you can start lining up to be the first in the new store on November 12th.) They will be handing out prizes to those who line up for first entrance in the store.
Located across Eastgate Drive from The Mall at Millenia:
IKEA Orlando will present nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, three model homes, 50 room settings, a supervised children’s play area, a 300-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates, as well as American dishes.
Other family-friendly features will include a ‘Children’s IKEA’ area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store.
Posted in Commercial, Orlando | 4 Comments »
Friday, September 7th, 2007
Tomorrow (Saturday) HOPE, or Help Our Park Expand, in Winter Park is planning a rally with music and a free breakfast in Central Park between 9 and 11 a.m.
The Residences at Ravinia, a new condo development in Maitland has begun showing its plans to the local realtor community. Marcus Burke at Condo Metropolis thinks they look good, so find out more there.
Rob Arnold of Sand Dollar Realty Group has a word or two to say about flat fee MLS listings:
“If you look at MLS statistics you will discover that 70% or more of all listings are sold by another Realtor and not by the listing agent, so the big key is to get it into the MLS to dramatically increase the exposure.”
Posted in Maitland, Quick Links, Real Estate News, Winter Park | No Comments »
Thursday, September 6th, 2007
If you take pictures of Orlando, we would love it if you would add them to the Roofable: Orlando Real Estate Pics group.
Posted in Downtown Orlando, Orlando | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
Erik’s recent post called “Hire a Helper” reminded me of another helpful website. Where Hire a Helper provides helpers for odd jobs like moving, mowing the lawn, etc., ServiceMagic is a one-stop shop for any kind of home service provider.
I’ve been in need of a house cleaner, a painter, a person to tile my floors, someone to finish my kitchen remodel, an electrician, and someone to install my fence. I’ve used ServiceMagic for all those.
You just fill out the online form for the service you need. ServiceMagic sends your information to three local companies that have been prescreened by them. Within minutes you will get three phone calls from those businesses and can compare prices. It’s simple and easy.
And…please hear me…they DON’T sell your information. I’ve NEVER received unsolicited phone calls after using them. I just get the three phone calls from the local businesses and that’s it.
Next time you need any service around the house I hope you have the same good experience as I’ve had.
Posted in Links of Interest, Orlando, Roofable Tip | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
The big news on the national real estate front for the past couple weeks has all been about the tightening of credit standards for potential home buyers, mortgage companies closing their doors, and a weakening real estate market throughout the country. We’re leaving the boom-times for real estate prices and settling into a correction period.
How We Got Here (part of it)
There was a very interesting article in the New York Times titled, Subprime Time, that gave some historical perspective on how the mortgage industry was turned into something tradeable on Wall Street. The end result was a mortgage market where borrowers were not placed under the same scrutiny as was seen in the past (prior to 1970).
Foreclosures and Defaults on the Rise
Today the Wall Street Journal has an article on how the large gains in the real estate space led to many more people buying real estate as an investment - particularly, properties that are unoccupied by the owners. We’re just entering into the beginnings of this mess, but it appears that many of the investors, especially in states like Florida, are just walking away from the loan. An excerpt:
Sazzad Khandakar, 43 years old, an information-technology manager and father of three in Monroe Township, N.J., is among the nation’s distressed home investors. In early 2005, he bought a $410,000 condominium and a $390,000 newly built single-family home, both in Orlando, Fla. “Everybody around me bought an investment home in Florida,” Mr. Khandakar said. “Florida was all over the news; my friends were doing it….I didn’t want to miss out.”
He planned to keep the condo as a second home and sell the detached house for a quick profit. For the condo, Mr. Khandakar made a 10% down payment, but he borrowed 100% of the cost of the house, assuming that its rapid price appreciation would soon provide him with equity. Instead, prices began falling, and he has been unable to sell the home or find a tenant. Now, Mr. Khandakar said, he is behind on both loans.
“My credit is shot for the next six or seven years,” he said, and he has run through $100,000 of retirement savings. “It will take me another five to 10 years to recover that,” he added.
This will be especially interesting to watch in Florida. We have a good economy that will continue to grow. However, we also have an inordinately large number of real estate investors and a huge amount of new homes and condos still coming onto the soft market. My guess is that it’ll be really easy to find a nice home to rent here in Orlando for a low price soon. We’ll also see a good number of foreclosures on the market for those with the money to buy at a great price.
Posted in Market Analysis | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
In the early morning of Sunday, September 2 nearly 100 fire rescue personnel responded to an apartment fire on Avalon Park Blvd. and Loyola Circle. No one was injured in this unfinished, unoccupied apartment complex where the fire destroyed two buildings. The Fire Marshal is still investigating the cause. Read the story in the Orlando Sentinel.
Posted in Avalon Park, Local Community | 2 Comments »
Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
With the Buyer’s market we’re currently working through, there are many homeowners who can’t sell their houses and for one reason or another are forced to become landlords.
I have had two rental properties in East Orlando for about five years (by choice). The other day a friend called me and asked for some tips on how to rent his house. Although I’m not a pro, I have been doing this for five years without a management company and was able to give him some tips on where to advertise and how to interview prospective tenants.
This post is for the average homeowner, who doesn’t know a lick about renting their house and is trying to avoid the cost of a management company. By the way, I have nothing against management companies. I would probably use one but I need to save as much money as possible because the rent to mortgage ratio is so tight.
This is what I do…
(more…)
Posted in Orlando, Rentals, Roofable Tip | 3 Comments »
Saturday, September 1st, 2007
“Welcome to Orlando, part of your house could disappear into a sinkhole at any moment”, or so you would believe if you watched the news. If you’ve lived here long enough, you start to grow used to the idea that the further West you go on our little peninsula, the more you hear of Sinkholes.
Apopka, on the Western outskirts of Orlando had one appear just a couple of days ago. 611 Erroll Parkway in the Erroll Estates subdivision started with a bang as the floor in the bathroom disappeared, and then it spread to eat the kitchen. Time will tell exactly how large it will get. (full story with video)
A Little Research
Wanting to know more about the number of sinkholes in the Orlando area, Orange County in particular, I jumped on the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection website and downloaded their data. Of the nearly 2800 sinkholes that have been reported in Florida, Orange County accounted for less than 1%, with a total of 189 sinkholes between 1961 and 2006.
The fear that we feel is probably due to some deep visceral reaction to being swallowed alive by the earth. However, it turns out that your chances of having a sinkhole on your property in the Orlando area are pretty slim.
[related: the Southwest Florida Water Management District has the best looking government site I’ve seen - it is also chock-full of information about sinkholes and information for that part of Florida (including Tampa)]
Posted in Orlando, Real Estate News, West Orlando | 4 Comments »
