Ocala Real Estate Talk

Archive for September, 2009

Marco Polo Village 55 plus

Marco Polo Village 55 plus is a different kind of Ocala retirement community.  It is not gated and there is no clubhouse or other amenities. The homes are concrete block with stucco and are located on large 1/2 to 3/4 acre lots. Marco Polo 55 plus is basically a neighborhood of single family homes with deed restrictions that make it 55 plus. There is also a Marco Polo Village that is not 55 plus so it can be confusing if you don’t know the area. There is a minimal yearly HOA fee to cover common areas maintenance. Marco Polo 55 plus is located just off SR 200 and close to anything that you might want. Homes here are large and of high quality. Houses have been selling in 2009 for around $200,000- and below.

Marco Polo 55+ seldom has more than 2 or 3 active listings and there were only 4 sales in 2010. There are similar non 55+ neighborhoods nearby. Quail Meadow is some what similar, 55+ single family homes on 1/4 acre lots.

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Marco Polo Village 55+ fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder, call me or send an email.

Statistics used for this blog post are from the Ocala Marion County MLS and are deemed to be accurate at the time this blog was written but are not guaranteed. All information is time sensitive and subject to change without notice.

I work with a lot of first time buyers and out of state buyers and as we look at homes I try and point out things that make one house better than others. Here are some things that I think make for a quality home here in Ocala.

CBS or concrete block and stucco construction. Everything else is considered inferior do to the termites. CBS homes can get termites because there is wood framing in the walls and roof but CBS is considered the best material and commands a higher price than frame house. Read the rest of this entry »

Real estate online has revolutionized the industry. It has empowered the consumer. Real estate agents used to be able to just show buyers listings of their own or those of their broker but all that has changed. Buyers can look at hundreds of houses from the comfort of their own homes and develop a real feel for value. This is a good thing.

I constantly send listings to buyers through my Ocala Dream Home Finder which sets buyers up with a predetermined search of their choosing and automatically emails them listings.

The problem is that there is just no substitute for seeing a house in person. You need to get a feel for the space, imagine yourself living there, check out the neighborhood. The size of a house can also be very deceiving. Online all you can do is look at the square feet of living area. I’ve been in houses with great floor plans that felt 25% larger than they really were and just the opposite with poor floor plans. Buyers see a great priced foreclosure but don’t realize that it’s in the middle of no where. Realtors don’t know what to expect from a listing either until they see it. I’ve been in foreclosures that were obviously never lived in and I’ve been in others that were so nasty I wanted to go home and take a shower. I once went to show a really nice looking house. We pulled into the driveway and saw the neighbor with cars parked on his lawn. There he was working on his Harley in the driveway.  A guy who looked like a member of the band ZZ Top.

The moral of my story is the internet is a great thing for real estate. The internet has brought transparency to buying process. However it is just one tool. A starting point and no substitute for a good real estate agent. That would be me of course.

Sales in August at 283 homes were up from July’s 269 homes. June was the best month so far this year at 319. Total listings remain around 5,500 homes.

Sales are way up in 2009 over 07 & 08 but that is because home prices are way down. Most of current sales are driven by bargain hunters snapping up foreclosures and short sales. The 55+ communities will always attract buyers because people retire regardless of the economy but prices are coming down in these communities as well.

Home prices in Marion County will not rebound to 2006 levels because they should never have gotten that high in the first place. Marion County does not have an economy to support $200,000- plus housing and never did. That is what out of the area builders and investors never understood and local builders ignored. Now that construction has almost stopped our unemployment rate is 12.5%.

I don’t mean to get down on our area but it is important for sellers to get a true picture of our economy so they can make informed decisions. Homes are selling every day but price is the way to move a house. The MLS is on the internet and buyers know a good deal from an over priced house and no amount of advertising can change that.

Buyers now is the time to buy. Interest rates are at historical lows and given the deficit spending our government is doing, inflation and higher rates are almost certain.

Statistics used for this blog post are from the Ocala Marion County MLS and are deemed to be accurate at the time this blog was written but are not guaranteed. All information is time sensitive and subject to change without notice.

September is still the summer in Ocala and not at all like fall as in other parts of the country.  It’s still plenty hot and plenty humid. Towards the end of the month the heat will begin to back off a little. By that I mean the high 80′s instead of the mid to low 90′s.

Here we are in September, at the peak of hurricane season and for the second year in a row, nothing is happening. Why do experts make predictions anyway when they are so wrong so often. Ocala is one of the least hurricane prone areas in Florida but the remnants of hurricanes provide a lot of scary wind and huge amounts of rain. In that sense I’m glad we’re having such an uneventful season and I hope it continues.

August was much wetter than in past years. We had several years of low rainfall and this year is back to normal. By that I mean afternoon thunderstorms on a regular basis. Some of these thunderstorms can drop 2 or 3 inches in less than an hour. I’m not kidding, I’ve had to lower my swimming pool several times to keep it from over flowing.

Remember as I love to say, the hot summers are a very small price to pay for no winters. I look forward to the winter.  Do you?

Property taxes in Ocala, as in the rest of Florida, are pretty confusing. A lot has to do with the Save Our Homes initiative, also know in real estate as amendment 10. Save Our Homes was supposed to keep seniors from getting taxed out of their homes by capping tax increases on homestead properties by 3% or the rate of inflation, which ever is lower.

The problem with amendment 1o is that you can buy the exact same house as the guy across the street, who has been there for 10 years, and pay twice the taxes that he does. Another example of politicians helping one group at the expense of another.

Now that property values have dropped like a stone here in Florida a new issue has come up with Save Our Homes.  This is called the recapture rule. The recapture rule states that tax assessors must increase the assessed value of a house by up to 3% as long as that it  is less than the homes market value.  This is why most peoples taxes are not going down even though their homes value has gone down.

Now here’s some home work. Below are 2 great links. One is to the Marion County property appraiser. Read the FAQ and check out the tax estimator. If you live in Florida read the portability calculator because you can bring your Save Our Home exemption with you to a new house. The other link is to an article from the Ocala Star Banner which has a detailed explanation about why taxes aren’t going down.

Marion County Property Appraiser

Ocala Star Banner

If you buy a foreclosure or short sale in the Ocala area it is important to understand that you will be assessed at market value and not the amount you paid for your house.

Finally, when you see the taxes on a real estate listing be aware that it is not the amount that you will be paying. Taxes adjust every time a house is sold.