Ocala Real Estate Talk

Archive for the ‘Ocala home buyers’ Category

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

Read the rest of this entry »

The winter of 09/10 will be one of the coldest on record here in Ocala. The weather guy on the TV station I watch says it is one of the 5 coldest since they started keeping records in the 1800’s. It seems every day has been 10 to 15 degrees below normal. Winters in Ocala are usually a great time of year with temperatures in the low 70’s. This year the low 60’s were the norm.

March is the beginning of spring here in Ocala, although this year is off to a slow start. Temperatures in March should be in the mid to high 70’s, the grass should green up and the azaleas should start to bloom.

Check out my Ocala Weather page on my web site to see weather information for each month of the year here in Ocala

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 median home price in Ocala has dropped to $87,800.00 edging out Ft Myers to become the cheapest place to buy a home in the state of Florida according to an article in the Ocala Star Banner.

Median home prices mean that half of all homes sold for more and half of all homes sold for less than $87,800.00 I think this is a little deceptive especially to those looking at this online from outside the area.

There are great deals in the Ocala area. I just think the median home price is a little misleading. It reflects what is selling more than what you get for your money. The Ocala area has a high unemployment rate and a low wage structure and local people are buying what they can afford.

In addition, I suspect investors are buying up really cheap houses looking to fix them up and rent them for positive cash flow. A huge percentage of below $50,000- foreclosed houses are selling for cash, which to me indicates an investor.

Most houses on the Ocala Marion County MLS sell for under $200,000-. In my opinion the real sweet spot in our market is in the $125-200,000- range. It is in this range that you can find a really nice house, in a nice area that needs very little or no work at all.

I specialize in helping people from outside the area find a home here in Ocala and surrounding Marion County. If you have a question email me or use the comment feature below. If you’d like to receive listings email me about what you’re looking for or use my Dream Home Finder in the right hand column.

I’ve added a new page to my web site, Ocala House Hunter.com, to help people understand property taxes here in the Ocala Marion County area.

The first thing to understand is that there are several cities in Marion County. Ocala, Dunnellon, Belleview and several smaller ones. Now here’s the difference from other parts of the country. Many sub divisions are not in any city at all and are just within Marion County. This is important when you are trying to figure out your tax rate.

Another thing to be aware of is that the taxes you see online on an MLS listing are probably not what you’d be paying. This is very deceiving.

For more about Marion County Property Taxes see my new web page.

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.

I know it sounds like a late night infomercial but it can be done using the USDA home loan program. As a matter of fact I just closed on a house yesterday where the buyer had zero out of pocket expenses.

Much of Marion County Florida qualifies for these USDA loans. Most every where outside the Ocala city limits.

Here is an example based on the closing I did yesterday. The house was $95,000.00. The seller paid $4,000.00 in closing costs and inspections. The buyer had a 102% USDA loan to cover the USDA guarantee which is instead of PMI insurance and rolled that into the loan. The buyer got a great 5.25% interest rate. That’s cheaper than renting.

Zero money down does not mean bad credit. The following is a rough guideline. Credit score above 620 and no bankruptcy or foreclosure in the past 3 years. There are other criterea but I think these are the big ones.

So basically if you have decent credit you can buy a house in the Ocala area with no money down. Call me or email me and I’ll refer you to the banker who closed the loan for my recent buyer.

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.