Archive for the ‘Orlando’ Category
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
The other day I was driving down Lake Underhill Road in Waterford Lakes. I stopped at a light and a woman handed me a flier through the window. It said that there could be up to another 300-600 cars on Waterford Lakes if we don’t immediately contact the commissioners to influence them on an upcoming vote.
Evidently, they’ll be voting on whether or not to grant a developer permission to rezone parcel N19-B to medium density (5-20 units per acre) with 15 usable acres. Parcel N19-B is a piece of land located in the back of Waterford Lakes at the very end of Lake Underhill Road. You can see the proposed development below.
There is more information on this initiative at www.LeadersOfEastOrlando.org. If you would like to write to the commissioners you can email them at the following addresses.
Teresa Jacobs: district1@ocfl.net
Fred Brummer: district2@ocfl.net
Mildred Fernandez: district3@ocfl.net
Linda Stewart: district4@ocfl.net
Bill Segal: district5@ocfl.net
Tiffany Moore: district6@ocfl.net
Mayor Rich Crotty: mayor@ocfl.net
Posted in Orlando | No Comments »
Monday, October 29th, 2007
In September of this year we probably all heard about the amoeba in the lakes in Central Florida.
The amoeba is called Naegleria fowleri and thrives in warm, fresh water lakes. It has claimed the lives of at least 3 boys who had been playing in the lakes. The amoeba is extremely rare and almost always fatal. It enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain. It presents with flu-like symptoms that quickly worsen over 1 to 14 days until the patient lapses into a coma.
The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia has only documented 24 cases of the deadly amoeba since 1989 and now Central Florida has seen three cases in one summer.
Even though the weather is going to be changing soon, please be careful if you’re playing in the lakes. The Orange County Health Department Director, Dr. Kevin Sherin, suggests that you wear a nose clip or stay out of the water warmer than 80 degrees.
A nice alternative to the warm, shallow lakes may be a visit to one of the colder freshwater springs in the Central Florida area.
Posted in Orlando | No Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Today is Blog Action Day, which is about the environment this year.
For my part, I’d like to point out a great blog/site/publication about living “green” in Orlando. Easy enough to remember since it’s called GreenOrlando. It’s an interesting website that is focused on keeping Orlando a great place to live. They focus on eight quality of life aspects: Art, Balance, Ethics, Faith, Fitness, Nature, Teamwork and Sustainability.
Sample stories cover everything from using natural Florida flora to do your landscaping to coverage of Florida’s greenways and trails.
Best of all, the Green Orlando site takes submissions for stories, events and thoughts from you on how to keep Orlando beautiful. Have a thought? Submit it to them.
There have already been some excellent posts written around the Orlando blogosphere about our local environment:
EKDAY - Clean up Orlando
Shaun talks about how the simple act of disposing correctly of the plastic 6-pack soda holders can make a big impact to our local birds.
Hojin Chang - Green Vision House Orlando 2008
“Green Vision Home will be a 4,900 square foot high end custom home to be built by Westmont Homes to demonstrate that green homes can be glamorous and durable enough to withstand the rigors of being in an active hurricane zone.”
[If you have an Orlando blog and wrote something for Blog Action Day, let me know and I’ll add it here.]
Posted in Florida, Green, Orlando, Quick Links | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
Innovation Way…AKA the Alafaya Extension. There’s been a lot of speculation about when they’re going to start and complete this project. Dawn Pratt, who writes “East Orlando Life” wrote to Commissioner, Linda Steward, and received a reply from her aide. This is what Dawn reported. For the whole response visit Dawn’s article.
- The widening of Alafaya Trail will begin during 2009
- Innovation Way will stop short 800ft north of the Beachline and will be complete December 2008
- Innovation Way/Beachline Interchange is projected to begin 2009 and be complete in 2011
- Innovation Way from the Beachline to the 417 is projected to be complete some time between 2012 and 2017
Posted in East Orlando, Orlando | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007
The New York Times just released a new graph showing the housing bubble. The only problem is, they have intentionally skewed the way the chart reads to make their bubble look even bigger and more extreme.
Nat Torkington points this out:
“In effect, they’ve zoomed in on the area from 100-150 and magnified the growth in the last 15 years.”
We very well might be in a housing bubble, that doesn’t excuse the NY Times creation of a misleading and overly sensational chart.
The Calculated Risk blog breaks down the errors and omissions even further and then shows what the graph should really look like if the NY Times wasn’t intentionally trying to magnify the negatives:
Posted in Market Analysis, Orlando | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
Dawn Pratt gets an update from Commissioner Linda Stewart on the time line for extending Alafaya Trail (Innovation Way) to the 528 (the Beachline).
Hojin Chang is showcasing some of the houses that famous people live(d) in SW Orlando. This week she covers the one that Payne Stewart and Tracy McGrady called home, and Shaq’s house.
Rob Arnold gives us 6 Tips to Selling in a Buyer’s Market. (Excellent Post!)
The Orlando Sentinel covers the College Park Leisure Homes (trailers) eviction saga. It’s an interesting case of squatters vs developers right in the middle of Orlando.
Linda Hutchinson of Stirling Sotheby’s answers the question: What do the Rich Really Want?
Posted in College Park, East Orlando, Orlando, Quick Links, South Orlando | 1 Comment »
Friday, September 28th, 2007
I’m attending an interesting local conference called BlogOrlando today, located at Rollins College in Winter Park. What’s interesting about this is that there are a number of local bloggers who talk about real estate and the local communities in Orlando.
So far I’ve been able to meet Tim Welch (pictured), who writes Colonialtown blog, and Chris Gent, who writes about the Conway area, for the Orlando Sentinel.
I also had the chance to have lunch with Debra Horowitz who is an expert in the Avalon Park real estate market in East Orlando.
Blogging about communities within Orlando is an area I hope to see increase greatly. The best news about an area is put out by the locals in that community - I see our job at Roofable as finding some of the best news and commentary from them and helping even more people find it.
Posted in Avalon Park, Downtown Orlando, East Orlando, Orlando, Winter Park | 10 Comments »
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
This is my fan.
My fan has a story. When my husband and I moved into our newly built house a few months ago we had to make some hard decisions. For instance, do you build a fence around the yard to keep three little boys from exploring the retention pond or buy a fan for the living room? The fence won.
One day, as I was exploring a neighborhood garage sale my eyes fell on this fan. I was excited. I bought it. Brought it home. Bragged about it. Hooked it up and found that it didn’t work. Wisely, my husband didn’t condemn he merely suggested that I look up the manufacturer on the internet. The tag read “Gulf Coast Fans,” which led me to the front door of Dan’s Fan City here in Orlando.
I brought in my little treasure and asked the sales guy what I needed to buy to fix it. He looked up the serial number and explained that I need a new motor. My heart fell. Then he went on to explain that all their fans have a life time warranty and they will replace the motor for free. Free? I explained that I wasn’t the original owner and he said it didn’t matter, that they’d call me when the new fan arrived.
Sure enough, a week later I went back, picked up my new motor, attached my blades and installed it in my living room. It works!!!
In the end I bought what turns out to be a $600 fan for $50! Dan’s Fan City’s good customer service makes me so happy. That, and the relief that my pride is still in tack.
So, if you’re in the market for a fan I’d suggest giving these guys a shot.
Posted in Orlando | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
The Texas Traffic Institute puts out an annual Urban Mobility Report on the traffic conditions throughout the US. They pay particular attention to the 85 major urban areas.
Orlando has the distinction of being one of the top 10 worst cities for average hours spent stuck in traffic.
Annual Delay per Traveler – Extra travel time for peak-period travel during the year divided by the number of travelers who begin a trip during the peak period (6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m.). Free-flow speeds (60 mph on freeways and 35 mph on principal arterials) are used as the comparison threshold
I’m tempted to start venting about the toll roads, ridiculous freeway interchanges, sprawl and the obvious lack of planning by our local governments… But I won’t, I’ll save that for a later date. Instead, bask in the knowledge of the countless hours you and your fellow Orlando citizens waste each year on our roads.
[update: more on the Orlando Sentinel site]
Posted in Orlando | 2 Comments »
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
The Orlando Regional Realtors Association puts out monthly statistics for the MLS in this area. It covers Orange and Seminole Counties and shows a month-to-month comparison for a number of data points.
The chart below is a snippet from the report that compares August 2006 to August 2007. Inventory has gone up, while the average days on market has extended by over 40 days. The number of sales closed is down by about 1000 from this time last year.
You can download the full August MLS report here.
Posted in Market Analysis, Orlando, Real Estate News | No Comments »
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 »
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 »
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 »
