"its a beautiful morning"

"I think I'll go outside for a while and smile"  The Rascals 

South view from the south balcony of Windrush 201.  This is one of my favorite features of this great condo.  This condo has 3 bedrooms 2 baths with 1623 square feet.  This unit comes fully furnished and ready to move in and enjoy.  Visual tour link below.
 

News from Jim

National association of Realtors has reported that Febuary pending sales flattened because of lack of inventory but is still the highest in the past 3 years.  New home starts are still slow due to lack of money available to small home builders.

They have also reported that in a lot of markets multiple offers on homes are becoming the market.  In Sacramento there is less than a month of resale homes inventory.  Multiple offers are more common than not.  One of our clients reported that their son had to close on his home while in route to see the home.  Keep in mind that along with Florida, Calif. & Nevada took as big a hit in the Real Estate world.

Thanks
Jim Bagwell 

"You can't be distracted"

"by the noise of misinformation"  James Daly

It is not quite as cold today as London, we have clients in shirt sleeves but not me.

Did you know that the Florida Association of Realtors reported that the inventory of resale homes have risen to 4.7 months of inventory.  The normal healthy quantity is usually around 6 months.  This has never been more untrue than with oceanfront condos.  In the 4 complexes we have talked about, Windrush, Windward East, 2100 Towers and The Diplomat,  there are only 9 active listings.  These listings range in price from $129,900 all the way to $499,999.  They include the front buildings in The Diplomat and Windrush which are the lowest priced to a 12th floor in 2100 Towers which is the highest.

I do know however that on March 22, 2013 Freddie Mac announced that the average 30 mortgage rate is down to 3.54% and the 15 year mortgage is down to 2.72%.  For individuals with good credit the monthly payment is more affordable than it has been in a long time even including taxes and high cost of insurance.

A good time to buy!

Jim Bagwell  

"I wish to be cremated."

"One tenth of my ashes shal be given to my agent, as written in our contract."
Groucho Marx

Contracts are scary!


Real Estate contracts should not be scary for the buyer or the seller. I believe that a successful Real Estate transaction should be a win win for both parties and that is one of the reasons we are still in business. You should understand what you are signing and that is up to your agent to inform you. Real Estate schools in Florida are a very big business, time consuming, expensive and the state test is not easy as it shouldn’t be. Bottom line is you learn just enough to be dangerous. Your broker has to be able to answer your questions and go over the contract several times before you actually write one.



When you find a property that will work for you and you want to make an offer. Your agent should show you comparable properties that have sold to base your offer on. The same is true for the listing agent he or she should show comps to the seller to see if the offer is good or a low ball. We always send the comps that we are using to the listing agent and ask that they share with the seller to avoid an insult in some cases.



A cash offer is of course an attractive offer in a couple of ways. No financing of course and appraisal is not necessary however I recommend that my buyers make the offer contingent on the sale appraising at or above the sale price since who wants to buy a property that doesn’t appraise. If financing is involved the buyer and seller should pay attention to the loan commitment date, if you can’t get the commitment for mortgage by the required date then essentially you no longer have a contract. Buyers must make a good faith effort to get financing or they put their escrow in jeopardy.



Inspection period is another important date to keep in mind. I like to make this as short as possible, usually 10 days. It alleviates a lot of stress for buyer and seller to know the condition of the property they are buying. The as-is contract is a tool essentially. It sounds very good to the seller as they think they will not be liable for any repairs. The as-is contract allows for inspection and cancellation if not acceptable to the buyer. What happens if the inspection is done and found to need a new AC then the buyer has the option to counter and say they will go forward with a new AC if provided by seller or otherwise they cancel with no liability. This should be explained to seller when offer is received. We have seen some very irate sellers when this wasn’t explained which actually be done before an offer is received.



These are only a couple of things to make your Real Estate transactions less stressful.



Thanks



Jim Bagwell

"New home sales rise"

According to the NY Times new home sales rose 28.9% in Jan of 2013.  This makes January the best sales month in a very long time.  Due to lack of inventory, resale homes are only rising slightly or staying the same.

The picture is living room view of a new listing we have in Windrush.  The unit is a SE corner with wrap around balcony, on these cold days you can slip around to the south side balcony and be toasty.  Condo is a 3 bedroom 2 bath with a very large living dining area.  Ready to move right in as it comes fully furnished except for some personal items and the wall mounted TV in living room.  Virtual tour is below, please take a look.
http://www.visualtour.com/show.asp?t=2980194

The Diplomat has had so many sales in the past year that the price is pretty much set.  A new fully furnished unit is on the market for $129,900, it will sell but it hasn't gone as quickly as the others.  The oceanfront unit listed at $219,900 in under contract and should close shortly.

I think the buy of the day is a side unit in Windrush on the 3rd floor with good northern views.  2 bedroom 2 bath unit priced at $219,000.

We still have 2 nice units on the side in Windward East 1 back from oceanfront.  One of these is unit 208, this unit shows great and updated, priced at $239,000.  The other is unit 408 with good views to the south but needs updating, priced at $235,000.

Stay warm my friends!

Jim Bagwell