Dunedin Homes and Condos : dunedin real estate, Market Conditions

Dunedin Real Estate - Are We in a Recovery or Is It a New Real Estate Bubble?

Ron Nedd — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:41:00 GMT

This month's newsletter will be a little shorter than the last few (which may be a relief to some of you) but I'm only going to cover one topic this month after reviewing the local market statistics and that is whether the current condition is a real estate recovery or a real estate bubble. One reason for the shorter newsletter this month is that I am still in the midst of moving and have my brother's wedding and reception coming up so my time is a little shorter than usual. Last month's statistics not only show the continuation of strong sales and restricted inventory but is now the month with the highest sales since 2006 and the lowest inventory. March, April and May now are the 3 highest months of sales since 2006 and we have had a continuous 17 months of sales where each month was higher than the same month in all of the past 5 years (and from January forward this year - all of the past 6 years).

We are also at the lowest point in month's of inventory since just after the market started to turn in 2005 (in July 2005 we hit the low of 2.5 months inventory). As a result, prices have been rising and are actually up nearly 10% from where they were at this time last year.

Information for charts above was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 & from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru May 2013. This information may or may not include all listed expired, withdrawn, pending or sold properties of one or more members of the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service. So what does this mean? Which is it:

Real Estate Recovery or Real Estate Bust

You'll probably hear both of these being talked about on the radio and television but which is it? Looking at the charts above you'll see that this trend did not just happen in the last month or two but actually began in December 2009. It was at that point where we were starting to consistently see sales in a month higher than the sales in the same month of the previous year (from that point there were 19 consecutive months like that). This was followed by a 5 month period that broke the trend but then it started again and has been consistent every month since then. Beginning in January 2012 we began to see each month's sale higher than the same month in all of the previous years back through 2007 and that has been consistent for every month since then. Price generally start to increase about 6-12 months after sales increase and the stable increases we saw that began last January have resulted in increased prices that started showing up last fall and winter. What is contributing to this and accelerating it is the low levels of inventory. When you get below 5-6 months of inventory you are in a seller's market and we have been in that range consistently since March of last year with January 2013 being the only month above 5 and we are now very close to going below 3 months. There is much speculation about why this is happening and whether it will last. I attended a webinar recently that was presented by the group I trained with to get my Certified Distressed Property Expert designation and the information they presented was very interesting and explains what is going on. From 1968 to 2008 there were at least 1 million new homes built every year with an average of about 1.5 million homes per year. Since 2008 there was an average of less than 650,000 homes built each year and even though new construction is picking up, it will take a while to get back up into the previous range which will result in a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of homes. It is understandable why there was such a reduction in new homes being built but this did result in a backlog of new construction that is needed. In addition to this, many homeowners have been waiting to sell and there are a lot who don't realize that they now have equity in their home that wasn't there 1, 2 or 3 years ago. Finally, the number of foreclosed homes and the number of homes starting into foreclosure have dropped quite dramatically from the peak in 2010 and is still declining. Based on all of this, the current conditions we are seeing will very likely continue for at least the next couple of years with strong buyer demand and reduced inventory, resulting in price increases. There are concerns over there being a 'bubble' and it is possible in some markets that are overheated, like south Florida (Miami area) that we could see this somewhat - but unlike the period in 2004-2006, we are seeing a much higher percentage of cash buyers as opposed to financed deal, buyers are not willing to pay above market value in most cases, and the price increases we are seeing are not nearly as high as during the previous period. Also, during that past period there was a lot of newly built homes and many that had already begun when the market turned. Today, we do not have that same level of new construction being completed or even starting as of yet. That doesn't mean that we couldn't get to a point where there is another bubble at some time in the next few years - but what we are seeing right now is not a bubble but an actual recovery in our local area.

Best Spring for Dunedin Real Estate in Over 6 Years

Ron Nedd — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:54:00 GMT

March 2013 now holds the record for the strongest month of sales in our local market since 2006 and, despite having the most new listings in several years, reached a new low in inventory since nearly 2005.

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
Helping a Deserving Mother and Wife Get Her Dream Home
Another Homeowner Saved from Foreclosure
Dealing with a Tough Negotiation

Statistics and Graphs

March has been a very strong month for sales the past few years and I thought that we'd probably be higher again this year, based on the trends we've been seeing, but I was surprised once again at how strong March actually was.

Another interesting circumstance the past 3 months is that the number of listings come on the market in the months of Jan-Mar are even less than the numbers for those 3 months last year. Those were the strongest 3 months last year for new listings and the fact that we had lower numbers this year during those 3 months with increased sales in all of those 3 months means that we are in a continuing inventory shortage. In fact, at the beginning of this month we were at the lowest level of inventory so far since the beginning of 2007.

Information for charts above was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 & from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Mar 2013. This information may or may not include all listed expired, withdrawn, pending or sold properties of one or more members of the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service. This all bodes well for our local market and is continuation of the recovery trend and also shows that we are in a seller's market. Another indication of this being a seller's market is the frequency with which we now see competition between buyers for well-priced, good homes or condos. I'll go into an example of that below. Despite it being a seller's market right now, buyers may compete for properties and even pay above the listed price, but buyers are not agreeing to prices that are too far out of line with market value. This means that houses, condos and townhouses that are priced too high will stay on the market longer than the average. But buyers do need to be aware of the fact that if they find something they like and it is well-priced that it can go under contract very quickly.

NEXT: Fast Action Wins for Safety Harbor Woman

Helping a Deserving Mother and Wife Get Her Dream Home

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
Helping a Deserving Mother and Wife Get Her Dream Home
Another Homeowner Saved from Foreclosure
Dealing with a Tough Negotiation

The experience I had this past month in trying to get a client her dream home will illustrate why it is important to understand the conditions in our local market and to be prepared if you want to get a property you like and it is a property that is well-priced and in a popular area. My client is a working wife and mother and has a wonderful 21 year-old son who has a physical disability and wanted to find a nice house at a reasonable price to buy in Safety Harbor close to the downtown area. We were looking for a few weeks but any we found either were not quite right or went under contract too quickly. I had made sure from the start that she had her financing worked out and, since she was paying cash, had a proof of funds. I had set up an automated search in the MLS so I would be notified immediately if something came on the market that met her criteria and on a Thursday evening I received an email with a listing that looked exactly like what she wanted. The seller was not represented by a Realtor so I contacted him directly and asked if we could see it right then (it was about 9:30pm at that time) since my client was going out of town the next day. He didn't have a key in the lockbox so we arranged to have him get a key there by 10am the next morning and I told him that if she liked it she would want to put in a contract right away. He didn't live in the house but is local and agree to come over if I called to do a contract. I called my client and sent her the listing and she felt it was exactly what she was looking for. We arranged to meet the next morning at the house at 10am. We got there at 10 the next morning and after checking out the house my client did feel it was what she wanted and I called the owner to come over to do the contract (I brought all the paperwork with me). While we were waiting for the owner, another Realtor came through and I told her that we were going to put it under contract. She replied that if the seller hasn't signed anything then it was still available and when the seller pulled up she walked right over to him and asked him if he had signed a contract yet. He told her he hadn't but was not too thrilled about her doing that. We went inside and filled out the paperwork and while we were getting all the signatures done another Realtor came in with a client and was holding up paperwork saying she wanted to put in an offer. The seller said that we were just finalizing a contract and that hers would have to be a backup - she turned around and left. We closed in mid-March and my client is thrilled with her new home. The reason I wrote about this here is to give an example of what can happen in this current market so you can see how important it is to be prepared with your financing early on and how you need to be able to move quickly when you find something you like, especially if it is something where you might have competition from other buyers.

NEXT: Helping a Homeowner Avoid Foreclosure

Preventing a Foreclosure in Safety Harbor

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
Helping a Deserving Mother and Wife Get Her Dream Home
Another Homeowner Saved from Foreclosure
Dealing with a Tough Negotiation

I realize this is the second article about a home in Safety Harbor but since it is an important one I figured you wouldn't mind. I have a client who is in the military, as is her husband, and she found out last fall that she was going to be stationed in Kansas while her husband was going to have to remain here. They would have to maintain their home here and she would have to rent a home in Kansas for her and her 4 children and would at the same time have a pay cut. They still owned their first home in Safety Harbor in addition to the one they were currently living in here and had been renting it out to cover their expenses related to that house, but they were running into problems with the renter and would not be able to afford to pay on that mortgage after she moved. So she contacted her lender and had begun the process for doing a short sale. She had originally contacted another Realtor but did not get communication back from them in a timely manner, and sometimes not at all. A family friend has been in town last September and worked with me and asked if I worked with short sales and when she found out I had special training on this she gave my number to the homeowner here who became my client. By the time you read this the closing will be done (or soon after) and the timeframe on this was not quite as fast as the other one I wrote about but that in part was due to the fact that this was a VA loan and in part because the first buyer cancelled after a few issues arose that he didn't want to deal with. We listed the house on December 4th, had it under contract on the 14th and I finally got the contract to the lender on 12/27 (there were some foul-ups in their system having to do with getting them the contract). The lender ordered the appraisal the first week of Jan and it took until the last week of Jan to get it through all the reviews (it was a VA appraiser since it was a VA backed loan). During those weeks we were waiting on the appraisal we had to resolve an open permit issue, which did get handled just before the appraisal finished its full review process. The appraisal came back on 1/29 and I was contacted on 1/31 by the negotiator from the lender. He informed me that the house appraised at $165,000 and the way it works on a VA short sale is that the VA sets a minimum net amount they have to receive in order to approve the short sale and that minimum net amount is approximately 85% of the appraised value. I had listed the home for $150,000 and the buyer's offer had been $135,000. Based on the appraisal and the VA formula, the purchase price would have to be $155,000 to meet the minimum net to the VA. The buyer agreed to raise their purchase price and we got a signed addendum about this completed by 2/5 and got the short sale approval letter from the lender the next day. So from the time the house was listed to the time we got the approval from the lender it was 64 days, from the point where we had a contract is was 54 days but from the point where I was able to get the contract to the lender it was only 41 days and that included the 3 weeks it took for the VA appraisal and review. Unfortunately the buyer chose not to continue after finding out the air conditioner was 19 years old and on 2/14 informed us they were canceling. But then we got an offer in on 2/17 and went to contract on 2/18 with a buyer who knew the price was not negotiable and knew about the age of the air conditioner and other issues that came up in the inspection. This was also a buyer who was getting financing and so time had to be allowed first to get another short sale approval letter for this buyer and then for the buyer's financing. Due to this particular lender's system it took a week before I could get them the new contract but from that point it only took 9 days to get the new approval letter. I had told the buyer's agent that it would be quick and was upset that it had to take that long when we had already just had it approved with the different buyer, but the buyer's Realtor was still amazed that it got done that quickly. Now we are past all the inspections, financing steps and the closing is in less than 20 hours. A lot more happened along the way than just what I wrote above (handling fights between the title company and buyer's lender, getting the buyer's lender to complete an action in time to get the short sale lender what they needed to allow us to close on time and getting yelled at for doing that, etc.) but in a few hours my client will no longer be burdened with a loan payment they can't afford or be worried about what to do to prevent this from being a foreclosure. From date listed to closing date: 125 days with first buyer cancelling after approval and inspections and second buyer having to get financing.

NEXT: A Successful but Tough Negotiation

Keeping a Negotiation Alive Until We Succeeded

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
Helping a Deserving Mother and Wife Get Her Dream Home
Another Homeowner Saved from Foreclosure
Dealing with a Tough Negotiation

During the last 6 months I've done a lot of studying in the subject of negotiations and closing and had a real opportunity to put this new knowledge to good use. A client contacted me a couple of weeks ago about seeing some condos on Sand Key. These were high-end condos in a very nice complex right on the beach. We went right away to see them and one of the ones we saw was exactly right for them. We put in an offer the next day for the condo and everything in it based on what we could see would be the market value and that the owner had been trying unsuccessfully to sell it for about 6 years. My clients were wonderful people and their offer price was set so that what they felt would be fair was about halfway between their offer price and the list price, with the assumption that this was about where the negotiations would end up. Unfortunately the seller was very difficult to work with and was even very hard on his Realtor who I've worked with before and is a very good Realtor. Not only was the seller being difficult about the price negotiations, he also wanted us to add wording in the contract to 'protect' him in various ways but would conflict with my client's right as stated elsewhere in the contract. At one point along the way, the seller even told his agent 'we're done' and it looked like he wasn't willing to negotiate any further. I utilized what I had learned and helped the other Realtor with suggestions on how to approach her client to keep things going and we were able to get past that point. My clients got quite frustrated with how things were going at several points along the way but they really did want this condo and I worked with them to help keep them in the negotiations, but always willing to let them end it if they really wanted to. After 4 days of frustrating negotiations and notification of another buyer about to put in an offer, I convinced my clients to change the strategy on the purchase and we submitted an offer for the condo without any furnishings at a price that we knew the seller would accept. Then we just had to deal with the additional wording he wanted in the contract. I was able to put the wording together in a way that would handle his concerns while still protecting my clients' rights in the contract and then we ran into difficulties in coordination of schedules since the seller was traveling for a vacation and couldn't be reached as easily. We had one day left before my clients would withdraw from the deal and so I got the seller's Realtor to agree to have a conference call with her, the seller and me that next morning. We had the call and I was able to handle her client's concerns and he was satisfied with the wording I worked out. He wanted one more document from his Realtor which she got to him shortly after our call and he then signed the contract. Everyone else had given up on this at some point or another but I had to do everything I could to get my client the condo they really wanted and was willing to work through all the issues that were coming up and knew that if I found a way to somehow get everyone what they wanted and could help the other Realtor with her client that we could get it done - and we did. After we had a final signed contract I told my brother he can start calling me Harvey. (If you have no clue what that means, I recommend you watch the first 2 seasons of the one the best shows on television - Suits.)

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
Helping a Deserving Mother and Wife Get Her Dream Home
Another Homeowner Saved from Foreclosure
Dealing with a Tough Negotiation

Dunedin Real Estate Marks Swings to Seller's Market

Ron Nedd — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:02:00 GMT

If you were wondering whether it's a good time to sell or if it's still a good time to buy here, then this month's newsletter is going to help you with that.

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
What It Takes to Buy Successfully Now
What It Takes for Sellers to Sell Successfully
Tips for Buyers and Sellers

Statistics and Graphs

February is a shorter month and is usually the 2nd lowest sale month of the year, just behind January. Even so, this February was very strong again with nearly 20% higher sales than last February and a higher sales number than every January back through 2007. This is now the 14th month in a row with sale higher than the same month in the previous year AND higher than the same month going back 6 years. (Click on either chart below to see them full size.)

As a result, Inventory is back down below the 5 months supply mark (as of this date).

Information for charts above was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 & from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Feb 2013. This information may or may not include all listed expired, withdrawn, pending or sold properties of one or more members of the My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service. What was interesting in February is that even though we had the highest number of new listings in a single month in almost 2 years, the number of properties for sale by the end of the month was less than it was in January. Of the 2038 new listings for residential properties in Pinellas County in February, 42 have already sold and 566 are under contract. So almost 30% of the properties listed last month are no longer available and it's only 2 days into the new month. But even that doesn't give you a complete understanding of what's going on so now I'll tell you the rest of the story.

NEXT: What It Takes for Buyers to Get the Deal

Two Buyer Client Experiences

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
What It Takes to Buy Successfully Now
What It Takes for Sellers to Sell Successfully
Tips for Buyers and Sellers

The first buyer has been looking for a house in the Palm Harbor area and a few weeks ago a new listing came to my attention on a Thursday afternoon (it had been just listed earlier that same day). I sent the listing to my client and he liked what he saw but asked me to call the listing agent to find out how old the roof was and get back to him. I called the agent and found out the age of the roof but she told me that they were expecting an offer in that evening. I let my client know and he said he'd show it to his wife that evening and let me know in the morning if he wanted to put in an offer.

I told him I had a feeling it would go quickly. The next morning I checked at about 8:30 am and it was under contract.

The second buyer was looking for a house in Safety Harbor and there wasn't really much at all available in her price range that fit what she wanted. A few days ago I saw something come on the market at about 8:30 pm and called to see if we could get in to see the house that evening. The lockbox wasn't on the house yet so I arranged a time the next morning to see it right after the lockbox would be put on the house and arranged to have the seller available to come over to sign a contract if my client liked it. I got the paperwork ready for a possible contract and had the proof of funds for my client (cash purchase).

We arrived at 10 am and the house was exactly what my client had wanted to find. I called to get the seller to come over and during the 30 minutes while we waited another agent came with a buyer. I told them that we were just waiting for the seller to arrive to finalize a contract and the other agent asked "has he already accepted your offer?". Right then the seller arrived and that other agent went right up to him and asked him the same question and then insisted on seeing the house.

I went in with the buyer and waited while the other agent showed the house and as soon as they left we started on the paperwork. When asked about the price he said that a friend told him that he should try to get a bidding war going but he didn't want to do that and would accept a full price cash offer from my client. He also said he had 7 calls already that morning about showing the house but that I was the only one that had called him the night before.

As we were completing the paperwork another agent came in with a buyer and told the seller that her client was ready to make an offer but the seller told her that we already had an agreement and that hers would have to be a backup. She left in a huff.

We got the contract finalized and my client gave me the deposit check which I deposited at the title company that afternoon. She was thrilled about the house and that we were able to get the contract on it despite the fact that there were people practically lining up to buy it.

These are both very recent experiences of 2 of my clients and I wanted to share these with you so that you have a better understanding of how you have to be prepared in this current market if you want to get a condo or house that you like.

Also, if you are ready to buy you should let me know so that I can set up a special MLS search that will let us know instantly when a new listing is entered into the MLS. This was the only way I found the houses for these 2 clients as quickly as I did.

NEXT: What It Takes for Sellers to Sell Successfully

Two Seller Client Experiences

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
What It Takes to Buy Successfully Now
What It Takes for Sellers to Sell Successfully
Tips for Buyers and Sellers

The first client is in a short sale situation and we got their house under contract within 2 weeks of it being listed but the buyer's offer was $15,000 below the list price. The loan that is being short-saled is a VA backed loan and the way a short sale works on this type of loan is that the VA has an appraisal done and then they will require that they net 88.13% of the appraised value - and there is no negotiating this. When the appraised value came back the buyer had to come up $20,000 on the purchase price and they agreed to this. However, after the inspections found that the air conditioner was 19 years old he canceled the deal.

I relisted the house and within 3 days we had it under contract with a new buyer at the higher price and with the buyer knowing upfront about not only the air conditioner but also any other issues that came up in the first buyer's inspection. We're now waiting for the bank's approval of this new contract and should have it any day.

The reason I'm writing about this one is to give you some insight into how government backed loans often have less negotiating room than standard bank loans when it comes to short sales and that even with these issues it did not take long to get another qualified buyer.

The second client had his house under contract twice since last fall and both times the deal fell apart. He had been trying to save money on the Realtor commission so he had been working with Realtors that did cut-rate commission deals. After the 2 failures he asked me to help him and we will be listing the house in about 2 weeks. I already went over 1 mistake related to how the house was priced previously which made perfect sense to him and which we will be correcting this time around.

I'll let you know how this turns out in next month's newsletter but I'm predicting that we will have the house under contract within no more than 10 days.

Even in a market like our current one you need to have a good Realtor involved who knows if a contract from a buyer is one to take or not and also when to try to salvage a deal and when it is in your best interest to end a deal and get another buyer that is more likely to close. To be successful in selling your home or condo you have to price it correctly for your area, have it prepared to show before listing it and select a buyer that will be likely to close.

NEXT: Tips for Buyers and Sellers

Tips for Buyers and Sellers

Table of Contents
Statistics and Graphs
What It Takes to Buy Successfully Now
What It Takes for Sellers to Sell Successfully
Tips for Buyers and Sellers

Both buyers and sellers need to be aware of the current market conditions in the overall area and in their specific area. Some cities or neighborhoods may be in a very strong sellers market and require special techniques to get you a home there (like I described about the experience of my Safety Harbor home buyer). But then some neighborhoods or complexes may have a lot of properties for sale and require the right strategy to successfully sell.

It's important to be given accurate and current information on the specific area, neighborhood, city or complex you are trying to buy or sell in to make sure that you are implementing the right plan.

Buyers absolutely need to have their finances for purchasing lined up and either a preapproval or proof of funds statement/letter at hand. Without this you will have a much greater chance at missing out when you find the right home or condo.

Buyers also need to be aware that sellers are not as willing to come down as much on price - except when they have been having difficulty selling their property and/or it has been on the market for an extended period of time. Even then you have to be prepared to act quickly because I have seen properties like that suddenly have more than one buyer express interest, and when that happens you will likely pay more than if you had gotten your offer in and accepted before another interested buyer came along.

Well-priced homes or condos in areas or complexes where there is a strong demand and little inventory - if you want it you should be prepared to pay close to or at the list price as long as it is reasonably priced.

Sellers need to have their properties in 'showing condition'. This doesn't mean expensive upgrades but it does mean that the exterior and interior are clean and neat and issues that are distracting (stains on carpets) or may concern buyers (stains on ceilings from roof leaks, rotten wood on the exterior, etc.) are taken care of.

Goals need to be clearly defined for price and the timing of the sale and need to be reviewed against the current market conditions with your Realtor.

From my experience I've found that at least 50% of the success of sales comes from the preparation done prior to the listing going into the MLS and 40-50% comes from selecting the right buyer and handling things properly after you get a contract.

For an owner who is in mortgage trouble or is in a possible short sale situation, the key is having someone who is adequately trained to handle this type of sale properly. I see way too many short sale listings being handled by an agent who does not have adequate training and which then unfortunately end up being foreclosed on. If you or someone you know is in a situation like this, make sure to call me to find out what can and can't be done in your specific situation.

Which Way is the Dunedin Homes and Condos Market Headed?

Ron Nedd — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:22:00 GMT

This month I want to go over some conflicting signs about our local real estate market to try to help you make sense out of them as well as some new ways for you to find out about what is going on here locally more often than just once a month when I send out this newsletter. First, to understand what's going on in the market here let's look at last month's statistics.

Sales in March

Last March had sales here that were the highest since back in 2006 and I doubted that this March would be able to beat that number. In fact, most months of last year were higher than the same month in all of the previous 3 years so it was questionable whether we'd be able to keep the same pace. However, not only did January and February (barely) top the same months in 2011, but March did also.

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Feb 2012.

Inventory Still Falling

And as a result of that, the inventory has dropped to its lowest level yet in the last 5+ years.

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Feb 2012.

Up to this point there wasn't much sign that this was affecting prices, but that has now changed. From January 2007 thru December 2011 there have only been 2 times that the median price for a single family home was higher than in the same month in the previous year and that was in January 2010 and October 2010. So far this year, we have had 3 consecutive months where the median price for a single family home was higher than in the same month last year and the average increase was about 20%. For condos there have also only been 2 months since January 2007 that showed a median price increase over the same month in the previous year and that was in May of 2008 and April of 2010. This year we saw a higher median price in both January and February over last year by about 8-10% but a drop in price in March. With the sales still increasing each year (which shows a continuing strong demand) and inventory continuing to fall to very low levels, it was only time before this was reflected in prices. It seems that the single family home market is stronger at this point than the condo market and that is in part due to the fact that the inventory of single family homes has dropped about 70% in the last 5 years while the inventory of condos has only dropped a little over 50%.

For Buyers

What this means for buyers is that you will start to see more competition and less negotiating room especially considering the fact that last month about 60% of the buyers paid cash.

For Sellers

What this means for sellers (more so for houses than condos except beach area condos) is that this if you were waiting to sell, this might a good time to go ahead and list your house or condo.

New Places to Keep Up to Date on the Local Market

There have been a lot of articles lately in a wide variety of publications that discuss this and that also discuss the fact that there will most likely be a noticeable increase in foreclosures coming on the market in the near future and to keep you more up to date on all this news I'm now providing you with a few different ways to stay current on what is happening. First, I've done a makeover on my Facebook page and am updating it quite regularly with the latest news on the real estate market and will also be putting info there periodically on local events and news. Feel free to check it out and Like or Share anything on there you want. I also would love to have you share news you hear about and also helpful information for others such as photos of any remodeling you've done, info about happenings in your local community and people or companies you've found that do go work in any of the areas having to do with taking care of or improving a home or condo. You can see the new Facebook page by clicking here. Another place you can go to keep updated is the Real Estate & Area News section of my blog that will have these same articles. The third place where I will posting updates is in my Google + account. You can get to my Google + page by clicking here and to keep up to date you should add me to your Circles. If you don't have a Google + account and would like to get one (they are by invitation) just click this link and set up your account. Don't forget I also still have my Clearwater Beach condos for sale site at http://clearwaterbeachcondosforsale.com which is more focused on Clearwater Beach and the surrounding beach areas if that is what you're more interested in. There's a lot more to go over but since you can now read about other news on my Facebook page or Google + I don't have to include it here and so am going to end off for now. I hope to see you here soon and if you need help with anything, please let me know.

More Foreclosure Listings?

Ron Nedd — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:07:00 GMT

This month I'll be going more into what is happening with foreclosures coming on the market and what that means for buyers and sellers, last month's sales statistics and the various tools available for you to make it easier to find what you want.

I wrote in last month's newsletter about how the inventory had been dropping and that I felt it was, in part, due to a reduction in foreclosures coming on the market due to the robosigning issue in Oct-Nov 2010 and that I'm starting to see more coming on the market now. I also wrote that I felt this might increase the inventory some but would not overall cause an adverse affect on sales since there was still such a high demand for these properties. Since then I took a look at the number of new foreclosures being listed on a monthly basis to see the trend as well as to compare to the volume prior to Oct-Nov 2010, and here's what I found.

In August 2010 the number of foreclosed properties that were newly listed in Pinellas County were 410. Looking back to last July, the number each month thru November was below 200 a month so it was less than half of what it was. However, since a low in September the monthly number has been steadily increasing again with the biggest increase in February when it went up from 213 to 254. However, even with that increase, the inventory of residential properties for sale in the local MLS still decreased by over 300 from January to yet another low for the last 4-5 years. At the pace that sales are going, even if the number of new foreclosure listings goes up to 500 per month we should either see the inventory stay level or only slightly increase. Here's the graph showing the new foreclosure listings from last July thru February:

The statistical information used to prepare this chart was taken from MFRMLS listing information from July 2011 thru February 2012.

One reason this isn't having as much of an effect is due to the strength of sales. There has been a good trend since December 2008 and last year saw an even more noticeable increase in sales to the point where most months were higher than the same month in all of the last 4 years. I didn't know if we would be in that same range this year but January was just slightly higher than last year and February did show a slight increase from last year too.

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Feb 2012.

Tools to Help You

When you're looking to buy a house, condo or townhouse here, there are many tools I have available for you to use in order to make it easier for you and I'd like to go over them with you here so that you can make the most use out of them.

On both Clearwater Homes Clearwater Condos (this site) and the Clearwater Beach Condos for Sale site there is one of the most advanced MLS search tools available today which you can use to do as broad or as narrow a search as you want and see large photos and extensive information on any house, condo or townhouse for sale in the Tampa Bay area. Once you've registered you'll not only be able to see all the typical information you'd see in a listing but you'll also be able to see any price changes that have occurred on a specific property; the "Walk Score" for a property and whether there is shopping, restaurants, etc. within walking distance; similar properties for sale; recent sales; street view photos in some cases (like what you would see if you were standing in front of the property and looked all around you); and lots of other information that you'll find useful.

You also will have the option to save one or more searches once you get the criteria set the way you want them and get emailed regularly if there are any new listings that meet your criteria.

On this site there are some searches already set up for you like one that shows all Foreclosure Listings in the best areas of Pinellas County and the weekly, handpicked Exceptional Deals I find. There are also pages that provide information on most of the cities in this area and the houses and condos in those areas.

On the Clearwater Beach Condos for Sale site I have a list of all the Clearwater Beach condo and townhouse complexes in the 3 areas of Clearwater Beach and links to pages for a good number of those complexes where I go over what that complex has to offer plus the listings for every current or townhouse in that complex which is currently for sale. In addition, I have also added a special form that you can fill out if you want me to set up a personalized search for you in the MLS so that you can receive regular listings (if you'd prefer to have me do this for you).

Finally, on this site there is also a Resources section where you can get the Buyers Guides I wrote to go through the different steps of the buying process as well as links to get information on Property Taxes, Flood Zones, which schools serve a specfic address in Pinellas County and a School Ratings site.

There's also the Clearwater Beach Condos YouTube video that gives a simple explanation of the 3 different areas that make up the city of Clearwater Beach.

I hope you find these useful and that with the information above you find one or more tool that you either didn't know about before or hadn't tried before that will help you. Spring is coming so enjoy the improving weather wherever you are and I hope to see you here soon.

Sincerely,
Ron

A Lot Has Changed in the Dunedin Real Estate Market in Just 12 Months

Ron Nedd — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:09:00 GMT

Lots of news this month and mostly it has to do with what the local Dunedin real estate market is really like now (and this includes the surrounding Tampa Bay areas) .

This month I also have important information for both buyers and sellers.

The current real estate market is quite different than it was just a year ago. In 2009 and 2010 we saw gradually increasing sales and gradually decreasing inventory. This was a stable improvement and recovery that continued throughout the years since 2008.

2011 also saw increased sales and decreasing inventory but the change was more significant than in some of the previous years. The number of houses, condos, townhouses and villas sold in Pinellas County as noted in the MLS has increased over 50% from the lowest year in 2008 and in 2011 the increase over 2010 alone was 15% as you can see it the chart below:

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Dec 2011.

This trend is continuing as confirmed now by the January 2012 sales numbers. I didn't expect last month to beat January 2011 since that had been a very strong January (with January typically being the lowest sales month), but as of the date I'm writing this we did see an increase last month over last January. And since there may still be sales for January not yet noted in the MLS the increase may even be a little more than is showing on the chart below:

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Jan 2012.

Now this factor just by itself isn't the reason that I'm saying we have a very different market from last year. The other factor to look at is inventory, or number of properties available for sale. As I mentioned above this has also be slowly but steadily declining since it reached its peak in January 2008 when there was 31.34 months of inventory. A normal level of inventory is considered to be in the 6 months range and in 2011 we had 10 months where the inventory levels were in the 6-8 months range. January is typically the highest inventory level each year and last month that was only 8.61 months. See the chart below to get a better idea of this:

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Dec 2011.

So what this means is that we now have a much lower inventory of properties while at the same time the demand is steadily and stably increasing. To emphasize this, the total number of Active Listings in the Pinellas MLS at the end of last January (for houses, condos, townhouses and villas) was 11,151 and as of the end of January this year there were 7,364.

How This Affects Buyers

Many buyers are still assuming that our local market is doing poorly and that they can get exactly what they want and name their price. A lot of this is based on what they hear on the news about the economy and the real estate market in general. However, that doesn't apply to this particular market at this particular time.

What is happening now is that well-priced properties, especially those which are in at least decent condition and in a decent location, are selling more quickly and in some cases with more than one offer. Buyers are still making sure they aren't paying above market value but they aren't typically getting huge price reductions on properties that are appealing.

One problem this creates for buyers who aren't aware of the current market conditions is that they have a much more limited selection to choose from than in the past 3 years. I run into this with a lot of buyers who keep asking 'what else is there' and I have to let them know that we have already seen everything that fits their criteria in the price range they set.

Just to give you an example, I have a client who has been buying very low priced condos that need to be completely redone and his plan is to remodel them and then rent them out, he's planning to hold them for several years as an investment. Since last winter there have been very few condos that have come on the market that were like the ones he had previously bought and the few that we did get contracts on were short sales that we couldn't close on because the banks wanted more than they were worth. Recently a condo came on the market in one of the complexes he already owns a few condos in and is a bank-owned property. This is the first one in over a year, but when I called the listing agent he told me that they already had 7 offers in and that the bank would be choosing the one they wanted within the next several days (and this was less than 1 week after it had been listed).

So the bottom line for buyers right now is that you should know what the current market conditions are and approach your purchase in a way that fits the market. You can still get properties for good prices but it is not as easy as it has been and you should definitely have someone on your side that knows how to deal with the current conditions. :)

What This Means for Sellers

I only work with a limited number of listings as I am mainly a buyer's agent, but when past clients or people who are on my email list request my help I will assist some with selling their house, condo, townhouse or villa.

This past year I had 4 listings which gave me a much better insight into how the current market conditions affect those who are trying to sell their property. What I found was that if a seller does not really want to sell their property or has unreasonable expectations on price - their property will not sell. If a seller does want to sell and has a realistic expectation on price based on the current market - their property will sell, and if marketed correctly it will sell within a relatively short period of time and in the range of the current market value. This does not mean that all properties are selling right away and that it doesn't take work to get a potential sale to close because there is still a lot of work involved.

Even with the current market conditions, buyers are often more demanding on things they want and when a buyer is getting financing there is no guarantee they will get it - so these have to be followed closely. But I would have to say that right now is a good time to sell a property if you want to and if you are willing to accept what the current market value for your property is.

One other thing that any potential sellers should know which is quite important - if your property may be in a short sale situation (where the amount it will likely sell for is less than what is owed on loans) then you should probably get it listed within the next 30-60 days. Currently when you have a short sale and the bank forgives the balance on your loan you do not have to pay taxes on what the bank writes off. But this is only true through the end of 2012 and it is not certain at all that this will be renewed beyond the end of the year. What this means is that if you sell your property as a short sale and the bank writes off $50,000 of the loan and it closes after December 31, 2012 - you may end up having to pay tax on that $50,000. I don't want to get into whether this is right or wrong, I just want to warn you about this because if you wait too long to sell your property and it ends up being a short sale you may end up regretting your hesitation on listing your property.

To close out this section of the newsletter I wanted to let you know that I am wrapping up the last of the listings I had and am now open to taking a few more listings if you would like my help (and they don't have to be short sales either). If you have some interest in getting help with selling your condo, townhouse, villa or house then you can fill out the Request to List a Property form I put on my new site.

Speaking of the new site, a lot of you visited there last month and got to check out the new MLS tool and I wanted to let you know that I have added pages on several more of the Clearwater Beach condos complexes since then so feel free to go back and look if you want to. Sorry that this got so long this month but I just felt that this information was too important right now for anyone trying to buy or sell any Tampa Bay or Dunedin real estate and hope that you find at least some of it applicable and useful for you.

And if you get a chance, please take a look at the new Clearwater Beach Condos video I've put on YouTube.

Dunedin Real Estate in 2012

Ron Nedd — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:06:00 GMT

What will happen with the Dunedin Real Estate Market in 2012? A lot will depend on the economy and how it does this next year. The more stability that people see, the more the real estate market will improve. And with more people retiring, there are more people moving to Florida. In a recent article about population growth in different areas around the country from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011 they said that "Florida added 256,000 people during those 15 months, lagging behind only Texas (529,000) and California (438,000). Its growth rate was 1.36 percent, or ninth highest." I think that the Spring will be very strong like it was last year, but I can't say what will happen once we get into the summer months and then closer to the Presidential election. We'll find out as the year progresses. Last year was very strong in the local market. Sales started their decline in 2006 and continued until the end of 2008. In December 2008 there was the first showing of some strength starting to return to the market and each year since has seen a 10-25% increase in number of sales in Pinellas County for residential properties. In fact, the total number of sales in 2011 were nearly 55% higher than in 2008. Last month I wrote in my newsletter that I didn't think that December 2012 would be higher than December 2011 since that was such a strong month and I was correct. But...it was only a few dozen less as you can see in the chart below (click on the chart if you want to see if full-sized):

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Nov 2011.

If you want to keep up to date on how the year progresses, make sure to read these newsletter each month - if for no other reason than to see the updated chart.

Inventory of residential properties for sale are lower than they have been since 2006 and I think that is partly because there have been a lot less foreclosed properties coming on the market. From what I can tell, that will change in 2012 but since there is still such a high demand in this market I don't think it will have an adverse effect on sale although I think it will prevent property values from rising much.

But there are definite signs that the next few months will be strong. One is that statistic on Pending Home Sales which reflect contracts signed for future purchases. Here's an article from the National Association of Realtors about the November statistics regarding this: Pending Home Sales Rise Again in November, Highest in a Year-and-a-Half

Clearwater Real Estate - New Clearwater Beach Condos site and Personalized Search

I just put together a new site geared toward beach condo buyers at http://clearwaterbeachcondosforsale.com and one of the features I included was a form that a site visitor can fill in if they want me to set up a personalized search in the MLS for them where they will be emailed any condos that come on the market that match their criteria. It's pretty cool because I took some time and got together a list of all the condo and townhouse complexes in each of the 3 sections of Clearwater Beach and when you use the form it will show the list that applies depending on whether you selected condos or townhouses or both, and for the specific area of Clearwater Beach you choose. You can check it out at http://clearwaterbeachcondosforsale.com/personalized-search-for-clearwater-beach-condos-and-townhouses-for-sale/. Well that's all I have for this month. Hope you have a good January and that I get to see you here soon when you get a chance to come down here and enjoy the nice weather and check out some Clearwater Real Estate.

Sincerely,
Ron

Some Good News to Outweight the Bad?

Ron Nedd — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 21:09:00 GMT

This month I'm going to try to do something that might not be easy - counter the overwhelming amount of bad news lately that has been being thrown at us every day.

It may only be good news about Florida real estate but heck at least it's some good news.

But first, last month's sales statistics.

July is generally a down month for sales compared to earlier months although in 2009 we saw pretty strong sales due to the tax credit.

This year, as was seen during all of the last 4 years, sales in July were down from June. However, when comparing this July to the last 4 Julys, we were higher than all those years including 2009 when the tax credit boost helped drive sales up. This is now the 7th straight month where sales were higher than the same month in all of the last 4 years and the 8th straight month with sales higher than the same month in the last 3 years. Once again, the recovery trend in our local market is continuing and defying all the negative predictions. See the graph below:

(Based on information from: 1) PRO/Suncoast MLS for the period of Jan 2007 to May 2011 and from 2) MFRMLS for the period May 2011 thru the end of July 2011)

So let me quickly get into the good news and also tell you about some bad news that isn't as bad as it sounds so we can get into the gift card info.

The good news is that there is now more information coming out supporting what I've been saying about the recovery in Florida real estate. At the end of July I got a daily news email from our state Realtor organization with an article describing a report from the Federal Reserve about real estate in the southeastern United States where they said "...Florida was bucking the trend and reporting positive news."

Here's the link to that article (and don't forget to come back and finish this newsletter if you go to read it):

Florida real estate gets high marks in Fed's laest economic review

Now for the bad news that isn't quite as bad as it is being made out to be (for the most part).

This past month there were stories on the news about the state-run insurer, Citizen's, requesting a very large increase in the sinkhole coverage portion of homeowner's insurance. Figures like 400% and 2000% were brought up in these stories and I'm sure a lot of people were concerned. The areas that will feel the most significant impact from this are in Pasco County (Holiday, New Port Richey and such areas) as there have been a lot of sinkhole claims up there and the rates were already high and will be going higher. It couldn't have anything to do with all the billboards of attorneys promoting sinkhole claim services though....

Since most of the buyers I work with buy in Pinellas County I decided to see what this would really mean to homeowners in Pinellas County and was able to find a chart from Citizen's showing, county by county, what the proposed increase was and what the current average sinkhole premium is and what it would be if the proposed increase was approved.

For Pinellas County the chart lists 3 areas: Coastal, St. Petersburg and Rest Excluding St. Petersburg. The proposed percentage increases for these 3 were 2045.6% for Coastal, 163.8% for St. Petersburg and 5.2% for the rest of the county.

As shocking as the Coastal increase might seem, the current average sinkhole premium in that area is listed at $3 and would increase to $72 under this proposed rate hike. Now that's still an increase and not a welcome one, but it isn't as horrible sounding when you know the actual amounts as compared to just hearing a "2000% increase".

It's always good to get all the information before assuming the worst.

Hope the rest of your summer is great and that I get to see you before the first snow flies!

Sincerely,

Ron

Harder to Get Good Deals?

Ron Nedd — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:49:00 GMT

It's time to take a look and how the current real estate market got into its current condition and where things may be headed from here.

Each month I go over the last month's sales statistics and look at what that tells me about our local market. This month, in addition to that, I'm going to go over what is happening with our inventory levels and what that has to do with the condition of the current real estate market here.

I'm also going to ask you about whether I should include a new feature on this site and need your feedback.

But I'm going to start with the June sales numbers....

Each month so far this year it appeared, in the beginning of the month that we were starting to seeing a slowing of the positive trend that has been going on the last few years and by the end of the month the sales were way up. I really thought that June would show a slowing of sales as it is pretty typical that the Spring months are strong and then sales weaken during the summer. So June was another surprise.

The sales last month were not only slightly up from May and higher than the month of June for the past 4 years, June's sales were actually the 3rd highest month from January 2007 forward. When you look at the chart below you'll be able to see that the turning point began in December 2008 and other than the 5 months following the end of the tax credit last year, every month starting with December 2008 has at least been above the same month in the previous year with the last 6 months being higher than the same month in the previous 4 years.

As I've been saying, this is a trend that shows a recovery in our local real estate market and demonstrates strength. This doesn't mean that everything is all better now or that there can't be some problems in the future. But it does mean that there is an underlying strength in the recovery in our local market House prices appear to have stabilized and condo prices look like they may have reached the bottom too.

Here's the sale chart for last month:

Now I'm going to take this a step further. There is another statistic that is used to look at the stability of a real estate market which I mentioned quite a while ago but haven't really covered since. It has to do with the existing inventory of homes for sale.

In the boom market that peaked in 2005, there were so few listings and so many buyers that sales and price statistics went nearly straight up for a while. A measurement of the condition of the real estate market can be done by taking the total number of properites for sale in a specific area at a given time and dividing that by the number of sales in that area during the same time period.

For example, if there were 10,000 properties for sale in a specific county at the beginning of July and during the month of June there had been 1000 property sales in that same county you would divide 10,000 by 1000 and get a figure of 10 - which is the # of months of inventory in that market.

During the peak of the market here the # of months of inventory was around 2, at the worst point it was about 32. A normal market is somewhere in the 5-7 months range.

Over the last few year I've been watching the inventory levels slowly descending on a steady basis and so I thought it might be a good time to look at the trend and I found something quite interesting when I put together a chart. The inventory levels are starting to flirt with the 'normal' range again. See for yourself:

There are also some repeating trends on this chart you should notice. The highest month each year is January (which is typically the lowest sales month); the graph trends downward from January thru about April each year then trends upward the rest of the year (except for 2009) and there is typically a steep drop in December. These tend to follow the buying trends - January the weakest month; improved sales throughout Spring; slower sales during the summer; strong sales in December.

If this year follows the typical trends we should see the the light blue line start trending upward and probably hovering around 10 during most of the rest of the year.

Now what does this mean and why did I call this newsletter "Are the House and Condo Deals Disappearing"?

With the inventory reaching more normal levels and the sales remaining strong we have a situation where demand has been increasing and supply has been decreasing. I wrote about this in a few of my previous newsletters where I described situations where buyers were losing out on deals because of competition from other buyers. In addition I've noticed that the low price range properties that were available at the end of last year aren't around anymore or are only rarely seen.

A lot of buyers and investors recognized what was going on in this local market and acted quickly to get in on the action and that resulted in increased sales and a reduction of inventory, especially the really well-priced properties. Another factor that increased the demand was a brutal winter season. I regularly hear from buyers in the northern states that they have decided they have had enough cold weather and are now ready to buy their winter home or retirement home in Florida, especially since the prices are so much better.

So what does this mean to you? It means that you need to know that sellers won't always be as easy to negotiate down in price, there will be less of the truly exceptional deals available and you will need to be fully prepared and act quickly when you find one, and that you shouldn't procrastinate if you're ready to buy but think maybe you should watch what happens just a little longer.

How this market will proceed in the future will depend on what happens with both the national and state economies and employment rates but even so I think that even if it doesn't continue to grow it will remain fairly stable.

Now there's one last thing I wanted to cover and I'd like your help on this. I've been working on putting together a report that will show all the foreclosures listed in the northern half of Pinellas County and the beach communities and have a way to publish this on my site with a daily update. I've got this report set up where it will show what is available broken down by type of property and by city and community, and I have been able to program it where you can search by price range, square footage, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, etc. and even will show you how long it has been on the market. But then I wondered if anyone would really use this tool or have any interest in it.

So I'd like your feedback on this to see if there actually is a demand for this information. Please either leave a comment below to let me know if you have any interest (or not) or send me an email to let me know. If I see that there is enough interest I will finish my work on this project and then let you know when it is ready.

Make sure you do something you enjoy this summer and I hope to see you here soon.

Sincerely,
Ron

Does It Have to Be Difficult and Stressful?

Ron Nedd — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:58:00 GMT

I was pretty surprised with how last month's sales turned out and I'll be covering that along with the most recent sales graph.

This month, after going over the sales statistics, I want to cover a subject that will likely be important to you - the potential stress that goes along with buying a home or condo, how to reduce it and what that is worth to you. But first, let's look at how February sales did...

In my last newsletter I wrote about the ups and downs in the local real estate market and how during the first part of the month it looked like February was going to be down, possibly breaking a long trend of recovery. I had noticed several signs during the first week or so of February that this was not only possibly, but likely.

Then, about the second week or so of February, there was a noticeable change. I don't have an explanation for why this occurred. It could be that the bad winter storms up north delayed some people's trips or any number of things but whatever it was that caused this is does not appear to be a permanent or long-term reversal of the recovery trend we have been seeing.

In fact, by the end of the month the sales were not only up from January and from last February - they were the highest for any February since 2007! This now makes 27 straight months where our local sales were higher than in the same month of the previous year, and the third straight month with sales higher than the same month in all of the last 4 years.

Will this continue? Well, not to be too much of a pessimist, I'm predicting that at least one (if not all three) of the next three months will have sales lower than the same month last year (but probably higher than than the same month in 2007-2009). The reason for this is that last March-May saw a dramatic spike in sales due to the ending of the tax credit. As I've written before, I feel that caused an artificial jump in sales during those months and that will be hard to beat. However, it does look like the steady increase in sales will continue through the next several months based on what I've been seeing in demand.

In fact, just in the last few weeks I had 2 clients that were interested in properties that had been on the market for 2 months or more see those properties all go under contract within a 1 week period. And these were not just lower-priced properties, some were in the $700,000 to $800,000 range! We'll find out next month if I'm right about what will happen.

But for now, here's the chart showing the local sales from 2007 through last month with the orange lines being 2011:

By the way, if you want to see the chart better and be able to read the numbers, just click on it and it will open in a new window full-sized. Just close the window when you're done looking at it to get back to this newsletter.

Now onto the main topic for this month. What is it worth to you to be able to buy your home or condo or townhouse knowing that you don't have to worry about most of the problems that can come up?

In previous newsletters I've shared some of the stressful situations my clients have had to go through; being a seller who needs to get the short sale deal on their house closed before a lender forecloses when they have an interested cash buyer under contract, or before the buyer won't wait any longer, while watching their bank dragging their feet on approving the short sale; being a buyer who has to change their financing twice due to new rules being passed while waiting for short sale approval; being a buyer who finds out as they are driving to Florida for the closing that an error was made by the loan officer at their lender and their loan may now not get approved.

Fortunately in all these cases the clients were people who didn't give up easily and who acted quickly when they were asked to provide information or documentation. Even so, they went through periods where they didn't know whether the outcome would be positive or negative.

The advantage they did have was a good Realtor who doesn't give up. You might think I'm just tooting my own horn here but the point I'm trying to make is how important it is to have a competent Realtor represent you as a seller and as a buyer.

There are dozens of step that have to be done correctly and in a timely manner for you to have a successful purchase or sale and finding the right house or condo for a buyer, or finding a qualified buyer for a seller, is just the beginning step. Getting from that point to a successful closing involves many actions that have to be done by sellers, buyers, inspectors, title companies, condo or homeowner associations, lenders, etc. More often than not someone along the way makes a mistake or doesn't do what they are supposed to do correctly or in a timely manner. What your Realtor should do for you is make sure to watch that everyone is doing their job and doing it correctly, and getting involved quickly when they find out someone isn't.

It may seem like it is all very simple and should just move along smoothly, and sometimes it does. But more often than not there are at least a few points along the way where things go off the road and have to be gotten back on it again. If you don't know what to do about these things it can get to be very stressful and frustrating and can even mess up the whole deal. You have enough to do without having to become an expert in all these other fields to be able to sort out any of the many problems that can occur.

When you have the right Realtor working with you there is a certainty you will achieve that someone is watching out for you and that nearly every problem that comes up can be solved. This doesn't mean that there won't ever be situations where you will have concern or feel stress - but it does mean that you won't be facing it alone and without the knowledge to fix it.

One thing that is needed in a good Realtor is a willingness to go beyond the normal expectations to find solutions. For my seller mentioned above, when the buyer was getting anxious and I couldn't get anywhere with the people at the bank handling the short sale, I went online and found a forum where someone posted the email addresses of the top executives of the bank and then emailed them about the situation. I got a call back that same day from the bank's executive offices and someone there helped me get the short sale department to actually start doing what needed to be done. It was this action (and several others that I won't go into detail about again here) that lead to a successful closing with 1 day to spare before the date of the foreclosure.

The other thing that is needed in a good Realtor is a good level of communication. In all the situations above I made sure to keep my clients informed about what was going on so they weren't getting overly worried because of not knowing what was happening. Even if I couldn't get an answer I'd let them know that I had called or emailed to get an answer and that I'd let them know when I heard back. The only times I didn't keep them in the loop was when there was a serious problem that would have worried them that they couldn't do anything about and which I felt I could handle quickly. Then, I did what needed to be done and when I had the problem resolved I let them know about it.

I bring all this up because I have interactions with people from time to time that don't understand why they need a Realtor to represent them or choose someone randomly or based on a recommendation of someone they know (but who hasn't had personal experience with the Realtor themselves) and don't feel there's any problem with that. In some cases they get lucky. But is it worth it to take a risk on something as important as this?

There are many good Realtors out there and I have worked with a lot that I feel do put the same kind of effort into helping their clients as I do. When you're ready to buy or sell make sure that you have a Realtor that will do a professional job and help take a lot of the burden off of you. And when you do have a good Realtor that is helping make things easier on you, you need to help make their job easier by doing what you are asked to do and in a timely manner. Sports teams that win championships are not the ones with the 'stars' that think it's up to them to win - they are the ones where everyone on the team works together, doing their own jobs in the best way and in the way that helps their teammates do theirs. A real estate deal is a team effort and you need someone who can 'coach' all the team members to make sure they do their jobs in a way that the end result is success.

On a completely different note - I highly recommend the movie "Secretariat" if you haven't seen it.

Hope to see you here soon.

Sincerely,

Ron

Ups and Downs? What Will the Future Hold?

Ron Nedd — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 01:35:00 GMT

This month I'm mainly going to discuss where the local market stands and where it looks like it is going.

Last month was another surprise after December's dramatic increase. Typically January and February are the lowest sales months of the year. I believe this is because many of the deals in the last quarter of the year close by December 31st and there aren't as many contracts written in November or December due to the holidays - so that would mean less contracts closing in January and February.

So what was the surprise last month? Local sales increased at least as dramatically as the did in December. After the tax credit ended in June and sale dropped in July and August there were a lot of people pointing to that as a sign that the market had crashed and that the tax credit just covered up a bad market. It was to be expected that there would be a drop after the tax credit ended and there is some truth in the fact that it did artificially increase sales. However, the sales in December and January don't fit with this assumption. In fact they show that there is some underlying strength building in this local market.

See for yourself in the chart below (blue is 2007, red is 2008, green is 2009, purple is 2010 and orange is 2011):

Now that we've seen the Ups, I'll discuss the Downs.

Early indications for February are showing a noticeable slowing this month in sales. With the horrible weather in the Midwest and East Coast I can't say for sure if this is related to the weather affecting flights and travel plans or not. I do know that I have a lot of clients coming here to look at homes and condos starting this next week through the rest of this month and next month so it may be that February starts slow and then picks up, but we'll have to wait and see. In my next newsletter you'll find out what happened.

Now that I've discussed the Downs I want to look at what the future may hold.

I don't have a crystal ball so don't assume that what I'm going to say here will come true. But I'm already seeing indications that this year will continue to show strength.

One factor that may have an impact on the rest of this year is the horrible winter weather throughout much of the midwest and east coast this year. I'm hearing from a lot of people in those areas that want to have a winter home or condo in Florida to escape to before next winter. With Florida being the only state in the country without snow the other week and temperatures in the 70s while much of the country was freezing, the appeal to buy a winter home or condo here is pretty high.

I've seen this occur in the past only to die down once the weather stabilized, but this year does seem different.

That, and the incredible prices on homes and condos right now, are likely to combine for a very strong year in sales in our local market. At least that's what I see happening. We'll know more as the year goes on.

I hope that you do get a chance to enjoy the weather and activities down here some time this year and I look forward to seeing you when you decide the time is right for you to buy.

Sincerely,

Ron

Finding the Great Home and Condo Deals

Ron Nedd — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 01:44:00 GMT

This month, after reviewing the sales statistics for last month, I’ll be answering the question above for you.

Last month’s sale were down about 10% from September and 20% from last October. The drop from last year is understandable since it was getting close to the end of the period for the initial tax credit. I don’t know why there was a drop from September to October but one possibility is the problems with the foreclosure paperwork from banks which put a temporary halt to many foreclosure sales.

The trend that I discussed the last several months though has continued. Even with October’s sales being down, there were from 8-15% above where they were in 2007 and 2008 which was prior to the tax credit going into effect. This still appears to show that there has been a continuing, gradual recovery in the market since December 2008 and we’ll keep watching the statistics to see if this trend continues. Take a look for yourself at the chart below:

Now let’s talk about the exceptional deals. To answer the question at the beginning – yes they are still out there and after discussing the different types I’ll share some examples of ones I’ve found recently.

I’d say they fall into 3 categories: foreclosures, short sales and regular sales.

The foreclosures have always had the lowest prices but have often been in the roughest condition. It’s always risky because the bank isn’t going to be disclosing any problems with the property, in most cases, and some can be a real mess. If you are a contractor or can get remodeling work done inexpensively, then they may be something to consider even if they are in rough shape. But unless you find one that is in pretty good condition except for some cosmetic work, you should be very cautious.

The other problem with foreclosures is the recent brouhaha about the faulty paperwork. This seems to be starting to straighten out but I still would advise you to consult with an attorney to make sure that you are not getting yourself into something that will be a problem down the road.

Short sales can either be great or horrible. The key is knowing which it is before you get too far.

The horrible ones are the ones that take 6 months or more to hear back from the bank and then they either reject the short sale or reject your offer and want an unrealistic price; or you wait for months only to find out they accepted another offer.

The great ones are the ones where you’re getting a great value and the process moves quickly. Typically these are ones where the bank has already done a lot of the short sale process on a previous offer or, even better, where the bank very recently approved the short sale and the price but the buyer hadn’t waited and the property has just come back on the market.

Sometimes you can tell this from the information in the description but that is not always the case. Sometimes I can see information in the field with information just for realtors and sometimes I can look up the history for that property and tell from that, so if there isn’t anything in the description then you can always ask me to see if there is other information elsewhere.

The least complicated of the three types is the regular sale. I call it regular sale even though there may be some unusual circumstances, like being an estate sale or a relocation, but basically this just means that it is not a foreclosure or a short sale requiring bank approval.

I’ve had many clients get very good deals because of some circumstances that motivate the sellers to want to sell quickly, making them more negotiable on pricing. Just this month I came across a house for sale in a very nice golf community in Dunedin with a view of the golf course out the back. The house needs a lot of updating but the location is very good and it appears to be an estate-type sale. The listing agent has told me twice that the current owner wants to sell this quickly and there is no outstanding loans so I know about how much they want and based on what houses in that neighborhood sell for this is a very good deal for someone who is willing to do the updating needed.

I also came across a newer, 3 bedroom 3 bathroom townhouse for sale in Tarpon Springs that is in good condition and is a bank-owned sale at $100,000.

I also found a townhouse in good condition in Dunedin with a boat slip for under $180,000.

Then there’s the 1 bedroom 1 bathroom condo on Clearwater Beach just 2 blocks from the beach that is listed at $99,900.

These will just give you an idea of some of the exceptional deals I’ve noticed recently and posted on my blog. You can see these and any others I’ve found by going to my blog or going to the ‘deals’ section of the blog on my Clearwater site. I’ve also set it up so you can get email notifications any time I add any new deals and if you want to know how to do that let me know.

I hope that those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving will have a nice holiday later this month and I look forward to seeing you when you’re ready to start looking.

Sincerely,

Ron (727-687-1160)