Heather the Realtor - Orlando Area's Top Real Estate News

You might be hearing a lot of noise in the Real Estate arena, could all that noise be opportunity knocking? I read some great information and thought I would share it with those of you who have been on the fence about purchasing real estate here in Central Florida. First time home buyers now has never been a better time. I have said it time and time again. Are you unsure if you can financial afford to buy or maybe people have been telling you to wait til interest rates or prices go down. If so then you need to read my blog about financing your real estate. 

This is a Real Buyers Opportunity

We are in a buyer's market today in part because there's a surplus of new homes available. Why? "Investors drove prices to new heights in the first half of the decade, so they could flip purchases for profit. Builders started more and more new homes to meet the increasing demand. Then, as investors found it more difficult to turn an instant profit by "flipping" new homes, they began leaving the market. The result is excess inventory. Once that inventory is absorbed, the market is expected to return to normal - which for Central Florida means strong but sustainable.

But what about those surplus homes?

Builders would like to sell them before they pick up the pace of new construction. That's why now is the perfect time to buy a new home. Builders are currently offering unprecedented opportunities to buyers by discounting homes, giving away options and upgrade packages, adopting creative financing plans, paying closings costs, fees and taxes and much more.

While the surplus certainly plays a large role in today's buyer's market, there are several additional reasons why this is a uniquely advantageous time to buy a new home.

So what's the next Opportunity Buyers have in this market?

A Real Financial Opportunity

Perhaps the first myth that needs shattering about today's real estate market is that interest rates are high and need to come back down to make a new home purchase viable. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Rates are, in fact, comparable to 40-year lows nationwide, according to the National Association of Realtors; comfortably close to their record lows of only a year or two ago.

Plus the more mortgage companies find it necessary to compete - and they really are competing in today's market - the more their efforts will continue to keep mortgage rates as low as is economically feasible.

So waiting today for the market to become even more favorable tomorrow - hoping for lower interest rates and lower prices - could cost you thousands of dollars.

In short, it could be a monumental mistake to predicate your buying decision based on what you think might happen with mortgage interest rates. Even industry insiders can't make those predictions with any certainty. Odds are pretty good that you'll be even less successful than they are.

You're better off buying a home now, taking advantage of very favorable market conditions, and starting out right away to build equity and realize the tax benefits of homeownership.

Yeah that's great but I cant really afford anything!

A Real Pricing Opportunity

In today's buyer's market, homebuilders are faced with the realities of one of the first laws of economics - supply and demand. An increased supply and decreased demand means that something has to give. The days when buyers would actually bid above the asking price, and stand in line just for a chance to enter a lottery to buy a home, are over.

Today builders & home sellers are dealing, presenting homebuyers with more inducements than ever to help increase traffic and sell more homes. Incentives run the gamut from free upgrades to favorable financing packages.

What all this really means is that now is an excellent time to take advantage of an unusual combination of circumstances. Buy now, while the pricing and timing are on your terms. And be aware that this buyer's market is a temporary situation. Once the surplus is gone - and every home that sells brings us closer to that time - there will be fewer discounts. Fewer upgrade deals. And fewer opportunities. Wait too long and that great deal you'd hoped for on the home of your dreams will be gone with the surplus.

The MEDIA ALWAYS AIRS ON THE SIDE OF THE SELLER. So what does this mean? When the market is down for sellers meaning a Buyer's Market they are spreading word of doom and gloom. But remember a year or so ago they were upbeat and saying Real Estate was the most amazing thing around, but for who? SELLERS so keep this in mind when you hear that next news story about the Real Estate market.

If you are looking to purchase Real Estate in Central Florida whether it's new construction, resale home or even preforeclosure, Heather Joubran can help you get that perfect home. I service all of Orange and Seminole County. That includes Lake Mary, Longwood, Sanford, Altamonte Springs, Winter Springs, Maitland, Apopka, Winter Park, Ovideo, UCF, East Orlando, Orlando, Baldwin Park, Lake Nona, Downtown Orlando.

Apple released a new update for the iphone. If you have one make sure to sync your phone. There are some great new features one of those being a GPS system! Yeah you can also get traffic delays. Another great feature is being able to customize your homepage and creating up to 9 home pages. You can create new icons and link your most popular websites to your home page.

So now on my main home page is just the icons I used most often, plus a link directly to my MLS wireless login. There are a few other upgrades but I feel these are the most important and note worthy ones. So all of you with iphones go update now! 

Hi Everyone on AR I apologize if this is wrong to post this on here. I was trying to look through groups for a place to post items for sale or if it's against AR rules.

I have an okidata C5200NE Color Laser Printer that is just sitting and I would like to sell. It's 1 year old. There is some toner left but I have 4 brand new high yield toner cartridges still in their boxes. This ink alone retails for $400. The printer originally sold for $800. It's a work horse. I have never had an issue with it and before the 1 year warranty ended in October I had the wheels and rollers replaced anyways.

I am asking $450 or best offer. If you're not close enough to pick it up let me know and we can discuss shipping charges.

Here are some specs:

Hi Everyone on AR I apologize if this is wrong to post this on here. I was trying to look through groups for a place to post items for sale or if it's against AR rules.

I have an okidata C5200NE Color Laser Printer that is just sitting and I would like to sell. It's 1 year old. There is some toner left but I have 4 brand new high yield toner cartridges still in their boxes. This ink alone retails for $400. The printer originally sold for $800. It's a work horse. I have never had an issue with it and before the 1 year warranty ended in October I had the wheels and rollers replaced anyways.

I am asking $450 or best offer. If you're not close enough to pick it up let me know and we can discuss shipping charges.

Here are some specs:

Well I woke up this morning to a fabulous email. I had been invited to the Bronze Star Hall of Fame. It's for those of us on AR who have blogged and have been active on AR. You must reach a minimum of 50,000 points. I hadnt even realized I was at 50,000, so it was a great honor to see that email this morning. I want to thank all my fellow members and customers out there who have been coming to my blogs and to those of you that I subscribe to thank you for providing invaluable information. I look forward to a great year with Active Rain. 

To others out there keep blogging and staying active. I have received a huge spike in hits for Lake Mary Real Estate since blogging here and many calls from clients stating that they have seen me on here. It does work! 

Well as I know most of the country has an unseasonably warm January I am sure more then 50% of the country has temperatures below 40 degrees. Some of you might even been shoveling some snow.

I however am sitting out on my balcony in Thornton park in Downtown Orlando Florida. It's some where in the 70s cool breeze, partly sunny and well just amazing. Today is one of those days were you could spend the entire day outside.  I am watching the people and their dogs walk around without a care in the world, while the cars slowly roll down the brick lined sidewalks. (I just took this picture w/the built in camera on my mac. One of the views from my balcony over looking Summerlin ave and Wildsides Restaurant) I love urban living.  I think once I get myself cleaned up I am going to walk downstairs and go to the local farmers market. Yup it's a great life here in Orlando, FL in mid January. 

So if you are stuck in the cold north and are looking to relocate to Central Florida or have thought about buying a vacation home near the Disney Attractions why not do it? Now has never been a better time to purchase a home or condo here in Orlando. Real Estate prices have dropped, we have a large inventory of homes to choose from and well like it's been said a hundred times, interest rates are still at an all time low.

As a first time home buyer you often have lots of questions and fears about financing your first property. Here are some common fears and answers to those fears.

Question: We have heard that it's cheaper to rent than buy.

A rent payment on an apartment is often lower than a house payment would be, but it is not cheaper in the long run. While your rent payment could be $100-$400 lower then a house payment, you would receive no tax shelters or equity build-up. Your rent will continue to increase while a house payment will remain the same.

Le's say that your current rent is $1000/mo and you would like to get your own home with more space for $1200/mo. If we assume a 5% inflation rate, over the next five years your rent would be $1000 year 1, $1050 year 2, $1102 year 3, $1158 year 4, $1215 in year 5. You would have paid a total of $66,300 in rent over 5 years with nothing to show for it, or you would be behind $66,300.

If on the other hand, you had purchased a home worth $140,000 over the same 5 years with an inflation rate of 5% yearly, the home would have a value of $170,170. That is a gain of $30,170 due to appreciation and your loan balance would have gone down another $6,000 for a total equity build up of $36,170.

As you are probably aware, you receive no tax write-offs as a renter. On the other hand, if you owned the home about 90-95% of the total mortgage payment made would be tax deductible. The interest and taxes are tax deductible. Therefore, with your itemized tax deduction and say a 28% tax bracket, this potentially would have saved you $18,144 in Federal Income Taxes. Renting only seems cheaper, it is actually more expensive and you do not have the pride of home ownership.

Question: We can't budget another $200-$300 per month to get the house that we want.

With the purchase of a home, you are entitled to itemize the interest on the loan and the property taxes on the home. You are allowed to claim one additional withholding allowance for every $3000 of itemized tax deductions for which you exceed the standard deduction amount. Each extra exemption that you are able to claim increases your take home pay, as your employer withholds less. Using this tax withholding technique can increase one's take home pay by $30-$500 per month, which could go a long way in decreasing your budget objections.

Question: I think I should wait for interest rates to go down, before we buy.

There is no guarantee that interest rates will go down, but I can guarantee you that over time home prices will go up. Even if interest rates do go down, but prices rise in the meantime, you would lose the appreciation and tax write-offs on the home and end up paying more for a comparable home.

As an example, let's say that interest rates go down 1% in the next year. On a mortgage loan of $150,000, this decrease would save you about $99 per month in your payment, or about $1200 the first year, but if the house appreciated 4% during the year while you wait, the same house would cost you $156,000 a year later. you would be about $5,000 behind, plus you would have lost some very valuable tax write-offs. If on the other hand, rates go up by one percent your payment would be $99 higher and the house would still cost more.

Why gamble that interest rates will go down? There is never going to be any better time to purchase then now.

If you have been thinking about purchasing your First Home then contact Heather Joubran at hjoubran@remax.net or text & call at 407-810-6304 or IM at plugoo0026.

Look forward to helping you with your First Real Estate purchase in Orange or Seminole County. Servicing Lake Mary, Sanford, Heathrow, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Winter Springs, Oviedo, Apopka, Orlando, Maitland, Winter Park, Baldwin Park, LAke Nona, UCF area in both resale and new construction homes.

Well Here are Orlando's Numbers for all of 2007.

As you can notice for the last few months we experienced  leveling off and hopefully some stabilization.

• New contracts and sales closed are half of what they were this time last year, but new listings are tapering off, which is good.
  
• Our interest rate has stated within a 1% or so not really fluctuating much.
  
• Time on market is just under 4 months which still  is very normal.
• The one bit of information that is shocking is the number of properties that expired in December.
• I think most people are realizing if you dont need to sell dont get in the market right now.

Buyers as you can still it's still a thriving market and a great time to purchase. Instead of having to jump on properties you can take a little time to think, find the property that has most of what you want and get a good deal.

Sellers this is your wake up call, you have competition. Make sure your home is show quality, price ahead of the curve so you arent one of the 3,157 people who expired off the market without a contract.

Experience realtors, such as myself can help guide you through this market whether buying and selling in Orlando, Lake Mary, Orange County or Seminole County.

Most buyers in todays market have no urgency to buy. Most are sitting around seeing what the market will do and spending another month on rent and making someone else rich. To help them with their lack of enthusiam it's important to educate buyers. I feel most buyers feel educated because they listen to the media so they know whats going on.

Well talk the people who bought their houses in 2006 because the media told them if you dont do it now you might not be able to afford a home ever. Ask them if they will listen to the media again.

Rates are at historic lows. I know we have all heard this a hundred times over, but here are the actual numbers associated with waiting and getting a higher interest rate.

On a $200,000 loan that increased from 6% to a 7% interest rate would cost the buyer an additional $47,340 over the life of the loan. As the purchase price goes up this number only doubles.

For those people who rent their wealth really doesnt grow. Take a look at this example.  The Federal Reserve reports that the average renter accumulated $4,000 in wealth between 1995-2004. That breaks down to $37 a month or just a $1.23 a day. I think I can find that in my seat cushion.  However for a person that purchase real estate the average home owner accumulated $184,400. Regardless of the cycles in the market. Keep in mind between those years we did not have any kind of boom.

Each year a First Time Home buyer waits to purchase a property it costs approximately $18,000. So ask yourself again why are you waiting to purchase real estate? Because the media says it's doom and gloom?

Will you be one of those people when normal appreciation has come back and our interest rate is 10% that said man I wish I would have bought? 

If you are a First Time Home Buyer and have questions about the real estate market here in Central Florida contact Heather Joubran Or want to do some research on your own. Please go to my website My First Real Estate for valuable information on how purchasing a home can be just as easy as signing a new lease. I serve all of Seminole and Orange County which includes, Lake Mary, Longwood, Winter Springs, Oviedo, Sanford, Heathrow, Orlando, Apopka, Winter Park, Maitland, UCF, East Orlando, Baldwin Park, Lake Nona. 

I can be reached by email at hjoubran@remax.net or send me a text message or call at 407-810-6304 or when Im online IM me at Plugoo00226

I wanted to help impart my wisdom on a recent deal.

The owner is out of state and bought this unit as an investment property. He missed numerous payments and even had a second mortgage on the property. Country Wide was the note holder but however the property had moved into Foreclosure and was sold off to another company.

It took numerous hours, phone calls, emails and grey hairs but I have gotten the deal done.

Amount Owed:  $240,000

I listed at :       $149,900

BPO:               $135,000

Offer:              $120,000

The offer was finally accepted today. They are paying full 6% commission, plus the $500 owed to the HOA.

It's a huge loss to the lender but for them it's better then taking the property back.

Also heres a little more information on this deal.

I listed it the end of September. Received an offer a week later and they gave us 2 weeks to get an answer. All paper work was turned in but it took them til Thanksgiving to finally get it all inputted and assigned a loss mitigation specialist.

Needless to say that buyer had backed out but I wasnt about to tell the lender that, I let them go forward and order a BPO the first week of December. I figured if I told them there was no longer a contract they would stop and it would take another 2-3 months once we actually received another one.  I worked hard to find investors, buyers, anyone to put together another offer.

So when the lender called me and said finally on Dec 7th we are going to present this all to the investor for an answer I told them we no longer had a deal with that one buyer but I had procurred another. They said give us 24 - 48 hours to get an answer back from the investor. Well needless to say here we are exactly 1 month later but I got the deal accepted.

Short sales as you can see can be great deals for buyers, but you have to be very patient.

If you are in financial trouble and need more information or would like to hire an agent to help you in a Short Sale contact Heather Joubran.

Contact Heather Joubran, REALTOR®, ALHS, RE/MAX Central Realty - Lake Mary, Florida.  Cell 407-810-6304 or email HJoubran@remax.net to list your property for sale or to purchase a home in Seminole County, Lake Mary, Sanford, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Winter Springs, Oviedo, Winter Park, Maitland, Baldwin Park or Downtown Orlando.

Visit my websites Central Florida Luxury Estates or First Time Home Buyers