Ocala Real Estate Talk

Posts Tagged ‘Ocala Real Estate’

Buyers often come to me looking for a newer home here in Ocala. I often tell them that no one has been building homes here since the market crash in 2007. Of course it isn’t true that no one has built anything since 07 but there has been very little building. Builders simply can’t compete with the prices of resales.

Here are permits for single family homes by the year to illustrate my point.

2004  4,611

2005  5,601

2006  6,026

2007  2,139

2008    933

2009    316

2010    399

2011    325

2012    359

Every fall people from up north email me about renting a home usually in a retirement community for a month or two during the winter. If rentals like this exist they aren’t handle by real estate agents. First off when you rent a house for less than 6 months and one day in Florida the owner is supposed to collect hotel taxes. Secondly think about it from the owners perspective. The owner has to find a new renter every month or two? In addition there is no rental market in the hot Florida summers so the house sits vacant. Finally even if an owner wanted to do a short term rental they couldn’t pay a commission to an agent they’d have to handle it on their own. Realtors do handle leases, usually 1 year leases. 

When you write an offer on a house you’re expected to make a good faith deposit. That deposit is held in escrow by the title company and can be contingent on things like financing or a home inspection. I usually tell me buyers around $1,000.00 and it’s surprising how many sellers will accept that amount. However from a sellers point of view you have to ask yourself if you wanted to get out of a contract would you walk away from $1,000.00? A lot of people might if they had a good enough reason. But would you walk away from $5,000.00? Probably not. $10,000.00? Pretty much definitely not. A lot of my buyers are also sellers somewhere else. You have to look at things from both points of view depending on which side you are on at the time.

I get people who want to make a quick pit stop and check out a house or 2 on their way to a cruise ship or Disney. I assume this is unique to Florida but I think it’s a waste of time. A cross country move is a big deal and requires extensive planning. I know I moved all the way to Ocala from the western mountains of Maine. You shouldn’t even bother looking at houses in a city you’ve never been to. You should pick the city fiirst. Then look for few communities in that city. Finally you look at houses.

I get a lot of questions about deed restrictions here in Ocala and Marion county. Deed restrictions are public records. This blog post will show you how to find deed restrictions here in Marion County.

1. Go to the Marion County Clerk of the Courts web site.

2. In the lower right under Records click on Official Records Search

3. On the right click Search Records Now a blue box

4.Enter party name. You have to get the name exact

5. Under restrict document type by code enter RES which is restrictions and covenants

Deed restrictions can be hard to read. Some were written before computers and are old typed documents that were poorly scanned. Larger older communities can have 100′s of pages mostly of very minor revisions. Typically you will find the important stuff in the largest document.

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.

Horse Topiary photo by Joe Dallorso

Most of the readers of my blog are from outside the Ocala Marion County area. A great way to get to know an area is to read the newspaper. If you’re a younger person you probably think newspapers are like dinosaurs. The reality is that only local newspapers have local news. All the Ocala Marion County newspapers can be read online.

The Ocala Star Banner is Marion County’s daily newspaper. You need to read it daily in order not to miss anything. This is a great source  to get an idea of what different areas of the county are like.

The South Marion Citizen is a great place to find information about the SW corridor retirement communities. If you click on news and then community you’ll fing columns written about the goings on in various retirement communities written by people who there. The South Marion Citizen is a weekly paper.

The Citrus County Chronicle is a weekly paper than covers Dunnellon and west into Citrus County.

The Ocala area also has 2 magazines. That’s pretty extraordinary seeing that Ocala is such a small city. Both magazines are lot nicer in print than online. They are both printed on exceptionally nice glossy paper, in a large format, with great photography.  Even the advertisements have beautiful photography.

Ocala Magazine

Ocala Style

Moving cross country is a huge undertaking. I know, I moved from Maine to Ocala in 2004. You have to do your home work and keeping up on current events is part of the job

I often get buyers looking for newer homes here in the Ocala Marion County area. Many are interested in a new or newer Ocala 55+ retirement home. I end up telling these buyers that there has been very little building here since the market crashed in 2007. The reason for this lack of new construction is that resales are selling at prices below the cost of new construction and in some non retirement communities much less.

The below survey is based on active listings on the Ocala Marion county MLS as of July 7, 2011

Total residential listings 3915

new homes dated as 2011…..19

homes from 2010-2011………32

homes from 2009-2011………55

homes from 2008-2011……..114

homes from 2007-2011……..311

homes from 2006-2011……..571

homes from 2005-2011……..769

What does this all mean? It means that despite the fact that vacant land is available at fire sale prices and Marion County has suspended impact fees on new homes, builders still think it’s not worth trying to compete with newer resales. This is the time to but a house in Ocala.

The above numbers include both 55+ communities and non retirement communities and all types of construction including mobile and manufactured homes. They do not include homes offered by builders that are not listed on the OMCAR MLS.

Rolling Hills is a large sub division of homes on acre plus lots that is in both Ocala and Dunnellon Florida. Rolling Hills was developed in the 80′s when land was cheap. Today developers avoid acre lots preferring to pack homes together on smaller lots in order to maximize profits. The interior lots in Rolling Hills are 1.16 acres and the corner lots are usually 1 acre. There are a few homes on double lots too.

Many of the roads in Rolling Hills are not paved. The primary roads are Lime Rock which is a hard packed road but they can be bumpy and dusty. Many side roads are dirt roads which can get muddy in heavy rains. Homes on the few paved roads sell for a premium. In our area when the county paves a road the owner pays for the paving either in a lump sum or as part of their tax bill over a 10 year period. Road improvements such as paving require a vote of the land owners in that sub division.

Rolling Hills is a great area for foreclosures. This was an area full of spec homes that investors bought at pre construction prices hoping to flip them on completion. This scheme seldom worked and most of these homes eventually went into foreclosure. Rolling Hills is a great place to find a large foreclosed home on an acre lot built in the last 6 years.

I really like Rolling Hills because of the large newer homes on acre lots and the location which is close to SR 200 and SW corridor shopping, restaurants and health care.

If you are interested in buying or selling a Rolling Hills homes call me, email me or use my Dream Home Finder. I’ll set you up a Listing Cart to show homes in Rolling Hills. I know this area well and I’ve sold several homes here.

Below is my Google Map of Rolling Hills and a few images

Read the rest of this entry »

Selling a home in Ocala is pretty tough these days. We are in an extreme buyers market with constant competition from short sales and foreclosures driving down prices.

The subject of this blog post is about the images or lack of them as found on the MLS by buyers. I get a lot more buyers than sellers because of my Ocala Real Estate web site and this blog. That’s just how it works. Most internet leads are buyers and not sellers. I’m not complaining because I sell a lot more houses than the average Realtor in Ocala as a result on my internet efforts.

What I am complaining about is the images I see on MLs listings. I will send listings to my buyers through my Ocala Dream Home Finder and they almost never want to see the ones in person that either have only 1 picture or really bad out of focus pictures. That’s unless the house is a foreclosure or priced like one.

Thinking of selling your house in Ocala or anywhere in Marion County? See my Ocala Home Sellers Advice or email me or call me. I would love to list your house and my advice is free.