Ocala Real Estate Talk

Posts Tagged ‘Ocala Home buyers advice’

If you want to make a low offer on a home here in Ocala you have to give the seller a good reason to accept your offer. Here are a few things that make for a “strong offer”.

1. Cash. Cash means no finance contingency. The seller can be confident that their sale won’t blow up at the last minute because the loan gets rejected by the banks under writing department. Happens more often than you might think. Not all loan pre approvals are created equal.

2. AS IS. A contract that gives the buyer the right to inspect the home and walk away if the inspection is not satisfactory. The seller makes no repairs and knows exactly what they will net from the sale. Attractive to out of area sellers who would have a hard time getting repairs accomplished.

3. Fast Closing. A cash offer can close very fast, 7-14 days. The seller may not like the offer but is tempted by the fact that the deal will close fast and they can move on saving money in taxes, utilities, insurance, mortgage ect.

If you think that making an offer using a loan with little or no down payment, asking for closing costs or expecting the seller to throw in their furniture or a golf cart is the way to get a deal on a house then you’ve been watching way to many real estate shows on cable TV.

Most of my out of area buyers seem to like pets as much as I do. Many even travel with pets when they come to look at homes here in Ocala. I recently found a pet friendly hotel web site that has customer reviews. If you travel with Fido you might want to check this out.

http://www.bringfido.com/lodging/city/ocala_fl_us/

I spend about 95% of my time as a buyers agent here in Ocala. One question that comes up is “what should I offer?”. I suggest that a buyer look at comparable sales to come up with an offer. A good comparable would meet the following criteria.

same sub division

sold in the last 90 days

within 1 mile of subject property

+/- 10% of the sq ft of living area

same # of beds, baths and size garage

+/- 5 years in age, 10 years if home is over 10 years old

same construction type

All this above can be used by a buyer to come up with an offer on a home or it can be used by a seller to find a proper list price. In the end it doesn’t matter what a buyer or seller thinks a house is worth. What matters is the price that similar homes have sold for in the past 90 days. Sellers should keep in mind that in order for a buyer to get a loan a bank will send out an appraiser who will use very similar criteria for an appraisal.

There are some great deals in Ocala real estate in addition to Ocala Short Sales and Ocala Foreclosures. For example it’s no secret that Florida is full of older retired people. Often out of state relatives inherit homes that they need to sell. I refer to these as estate sales.

Unlike foreclosures, that are rare in the Ocala 55+ communities, there are an abundance of estate sales. The 55+ estate sales vary from newer homes in very good condition to older homes in need of updating such as paint, carpet or appliances.

There are also quite a few estate sales outside the 55+ communities.

In addition to estate sales there are also vacant homes owned by investors who are unable to do a short sale and homes vacated by people who had to relocate for various reasons.

Benefits of buying a vacant home or estate sale.

• Quick closing
• Excellent prices
• Exist in 55+ communities
• motivated sellers

If you are interested in vacant homes in the Ocala area or an estate sale call me, email me or use my Ocala Dream Home Finder. Be specific, I can’t send you every estate sale on our MLS. There are just too many.

Right now is the opportunity of a lifetime to buy an Ocala home. Here are 12 reasons to invest in Ocala real estate right now.

1. Interest rates are at historical low with no where to go but up.
2. Many Ocala area home sellers will pay part or all of a buyers closing costs.
3. Fannie Mae Homepath Financing doesn’t require an appraisal and also offers renovation loans for their Ocala and Marion County foreclosed properties.
4. USDA offers 100% financing with no Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) on many Marion County homes. Mostly homes that are not in the Ocala city limits.
5. FHA loans allow the seller to pay many of the buyers closing costs.
6. Conventional loans rates are at all time lows. Local banks want to loan money to buyers with good credit. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
7. Foreclosures are selling at a 50% discount from 2005-08 highs.
8. Most Ocala foreclosures are in good condition and easily pass a professional home inspection.
9. Many “traditional sellers” have dropped their prices to better compete with distress sales.
10. In the 55+ communities there are always great deals on estate sales.
11. Estate sales also exist outside the 55+ communities and are a hidden secret often over shadowed by Ocala area foreclosures and short sales.
12. Principle, interest, taxes and insurance are often not much more than renting.

If you are a first time buyer, a renter, a retiree or investor now is the time to buy.

Its termite swarm season again here in Ocala. As the weather warms up termites go out and look for a new home. You do not want that new home to be yours.

Termites cause $700,000,000.00 in damage each year here in Florida. Despite this scary statistic about half the homes in Florida have no form of protection.

There are 2 types of termites, subterranean and dry wood. The subterranean variety is considered the worst because they have much larger colonies and thus eat more wood. Obvious from the name they live in the ground and prefer moist conditions and wood. The subterranean termites enter your house through a sort of tube that connects their colony to the food source. Dry wood termites like dry wood, like the rafters in your attic. They have much smaller colonies and are harder to detect.

The University of Florida has a great web site dedicated to termites with loads of information and great color images. Take a good look at the pictures and so you can identify the little buggers if you see one.

Subterranean Termites

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No it’s not a crazy come on or infomercial. Fannie Mae the huge federal agency is offering incentives to buy Fannie Mae owned foreclosures.

Here is how it goes.

You must buy and close on a Fannie Mae foreclosure between Jan 28 and April 30, 2010.

Fannie Mae is offering 3.5% of the sold price that can be used for closing costs or to buy Whirlpool appliances through Fannie Mae or the buyer can do a combination of closing costs and appliances. Buyers must be owner occupants.

According to the Fannie Mae web site. Lenders may impose their own limitations on the use of the 3.5% incentive, so buyers should consult their lenders for guidance.

Many foreclosures in the Ocala area are either homes that never had all the appliances or the homes were burglarized and the appliances were stolen.

If you are interested in foreclosures in Ocala and surrounding Marion County email me or use the Dream Home Finder in the left column of my blog.

The First Time Buyer Tax Credit has been extended to April 30, 2010. There have also been some changes, the biggest being that the credit has been extended to existing home owners. I have created the chart below to show the differences between the current tax credit and the new one that just got signed into law.

First time buyers can also use their tax credit as part of their down payment.  This is done by a bridge loan that you get through the State Housing Initiatives Program, better known as the SHIP program. Call or email me for contact info. It’s important to realize that there is both a city of Ocala and Marion County SHIP.

The buyer has a responsibility to do their own research and due diligence when buying a home. A real estate agent in Florida is assumed to be acting as a transaction broker with the following limited responsibilities.

1. Deal honestly and fairly.

2. Account for all funds.

3. Use skill, care and diligence in the transaction.

4. Disclose all known facts that materially effect the property even if not readily observable to the buyer.

5. Present all offers and counter offers in a timely manner.

6. Limited confidentiality. An agent can’t reveal that a seller will take a lower price, a buyer will pay a higher price or other info detrimental to the oposing party. The buyer or seller are not responsible  for the actions of their agent unlike a single agency.

This is a brief over view of the duties and the full disclosure is available in PDF format if you want a copy.

When you work with an agent you are really working with their broker. Acting as a transaction broker allow the agent to show other listings from their brokers office.

The point of all this is that it is up to the buyers to determine if the home and the area is suitable for them.

Here are a few resources.

Read the local newspaper, the Star Banner, it’s online and free. Read it every day to get a feel for the area, schools, politics or what ever interests you.

Don’t ask a Realtor questions about an areas demographics. That’s the third rail of real estate. If you’re interested in demographics do an internet search. You can search on anything even by zip codes.

Law enforcement agencies have pretty nice web sites. The 2 important ones are the Marion County Sheriff and the city of Ocala police department. Remember although our area is often referred to as Ocala a lot of the area is actually in Marion County and may be in a subdivision that is not in any city or town.

Ocala is a great place to retire or to live if you’re self employed but finding a job can be tough. I think the best resource for Ocala employment opportunities is Employ Florida.

Google Maps is a nice way to get a feel for Marion County. I’ve created a map of Ocala 55+ retirement communities and plan to build others. If you’re not real familiar with Google Maps or the competition, you can often click on areal view and zoom in on a feature or area. Keep in mind that these images may not be up to date.

Property taxes are very confusing. The tax amount that you see on a listing is probably not what you will end up paying. Taxes are reassessed every time a house is sold. The Marion County Property Appraiser has a nice web site. Check out the FAQ and the tax estimator. I have also added a new page to my web site about Ocala area Property Taxes.

Read my blog. I try to do 1 or 2 posts a week. I also blog about the weather and market conditions monthly.