Central Florida & metro Orlando real estate services

Video Blog- "Is The FDIC Killing Short Sales?"- A MUST WATCH

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:01:29 -0600

This is unbelieveable. Talk about Wall Street greed.

Via Robert G Hertzog (Summit Home Consultants):

Video Blog- "Is The FDIC Killing Short Sales?"- A MUST WATCH

Many of you read the blog I wrote in September/2009, entitled "Is The FDIC Killing Short Sales?" In the blog, I explained how OneWest Bank, who had received a sweetheart deal from the FDIC called a "shared-loss agreement", was holding my client hostage for a $75,000 promissory note demand.

In the end, once I reminded them of how much money they were getting from the FDIC, they agreed to drop their demand for the promissory note, and the short sale closed 3 weeks later.

Today, they guys at "Think Big Work Small" did a great video blog, describing my case. If this doesn't get your blood boiling, I don't know what will! Take 5 minutes out of your busy day to watch this video. It does a great job of what could be causing your short sales to stall.

Video Blog-"Is The FDIC Killing Short Sales?"- A MUST WATCH

Please Please Please do your part and re-post this blog to everyone you know. The "Think Big Work Small" website gets several thousand hits per day, and this story needs to get out!

Bob Hertzog

Designated Broker-Summit Home Consultants

www.phxshortsalehelp.com

P.S.- "Think Big, Work Small" did a follow-up to the story yesterday. Fast-Forward to the 1:50 mark to view it.

Video Blog-Follow Up

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Apopka, Kissimmee, Clermont, Casselberry, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.

Surprise I found while doing BPOs

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:04:51 -0600

I was doing a BPO in Longwood today and when I went in the backyard look at what I found. Pretty cool. Usually all I come across is someone's dirty laundry or leftover junk. This put a step in my day. Happy Monday!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Two of Sand Dollar Realty Group's Realtors quoted in today's Orlando Sentinel regarding foreclosures & short sales

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:11:05 -0600

I thought this was pretty cool. 2 of our firm's Realtors were interviewed and quoted in the front page article of today's Orlando Sentinel. We have many short sale, foreclosure, and Orlando real estate experts working at our firm. It is great seeing them get the recognition they deserve for their knowledge and expertise.

Here is a direct link to the article: The rate of short sales vs foreclosures.

Both Fred Allen and Shaina Markulin have been with our firm for several years selling short sale and foreclosure properties throughout the Central Florida and Space Coast.

The article also contains a detailed map broken down by zip code showing the number of short sales and foreclosures during the 4th quarter of 2009. Check it out.

If you are interested in foreclosures or investment property in Central Florida it pays to consult with the experts at Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Flat fee mls listing service in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County Florida

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:53:56 -0600

We list properties in Broward County and the Gold Coast. Sell your Broward County property through us. We are experts in selling properties in Broward County. Broward County Realtor. Broward County real estate.

Flat fee MLS listing Broward County. Discount real estate broker Broward County. For sale by owner services Broward County. List in the MLS for less. Use our FSBO MLS services to list your house or property. Flat fee discount Realtor.

List your home with us. Our buy owner real estate services are the best. Flat fee MLS and fixed fee MLS by owner services available. Contact us if you are looking to buy or sell a house or investment property. Investor MLS realty services.

Broward County is serviced by several local Realtor associations including the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale and the South Broward Board of Realtors . These associations use the South Florida Regional MLS (which we are members of) for their members to search for real estate listings.

Click here for more info on our flat fee MLS services.

We can provide our real estate services and discount MLS flat fee listings in all of the Gold Coast, Central & South Florida and beyond including Parkland, Coconut Creek, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Margate, Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Hillsboro Beach, Tamarac, North Lauderdale, Lauderdale by the Sea, Sea Ranch Lakes, Oakland Park, Wilton Manors, Lazy Lake, Fort Lauderdale, Ft Lauderdale, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Sunrise, Plantation, Weston, Davie, Dania Beach, Hollywood, Southwest Ranches, Cooper City, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, West Park, Pembroke Park, Hallandale Beach, and all of Broward County FL.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Flat fee mls listing service Miami Dade County, Hialeah, Kendall, Coral Gables Florida

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:51:05 -0600

We list properties in Miami-Dade County and the Gold Coast. Sell your Miami Dade County property through us. We are experts in selling properties in Miami-Dade County. Miami Dade County Realtor. Miami Dade County real estate.

Flat fee MLS listing Miami Dade County. Discount real estate broker Miami Dade County. For sale by owner services Miami-Dade County. List in the MLS for less. Use our FSBO MLS services to list your house or property. Flat fee discount Realtor.

List your home with us. Our buy owner real estate services are the best. Flat fee MLS and fixed fee MLS by owner services available. Contact us if you are looking to buy or sell a house or investment property. Investor MLS realty services.

Miami-Dade County is serviced by several local Realtor associations including the Realtor Association of Greater Miami & The Beaches , the The Realtor Association of Miami-Dade County , and the Northwestern Dade Association of Realtors . These associations use the South Florida Regional MLS (which we are members of) for their members to search for real estate listings.

Click here for more info on our flat fee MLS services.

We can provide our real estate services and discount MLS flat fee listings in all of the Gold Coast, Central & South Florida and beyond including Dade County, Miami Gardens, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Golden Beach, North Miami Beach, North Miami, Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Indian Creek, Surfside, Biscayne Park, Miami Shores, El Portal, North Bay Village, Opa Locka, Miami Lakes, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Medley, Doral, Miami Springs, Virginia Gardens, Sweetwater, Miami, Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, West Miami, Coral Gables, South Miami, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Homestead, Florida City, Islandia, Fountainbleau, Kendall, Tamiami, Everglades, Andover, Coconut Grove, Carol City, Liberty City, and all of Miami-Dade County FL.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Orange County Florida courthouse foreclosure sales are going online

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:40:03 -0600

With the creation of Ebay, people have flocked to online sales. Any REO Realtor has experienced an online auction here or there. HUD has been holding online auctions with their homes for about 10 years now and fortunately I've sold many dozen of them over that time.

Orange County Florida home to Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Apopka, and of course Walt Disney World is getting ready to move their foreclosure sales into the world of online auctions. Currently the foreclosure auctions are so backlogged that they can take a couple of hours every day for the clerk to muddle through them all. This will change drastically when it goes online.

Many investors are complaining that they won't be able to get as good a deal. Although that may be true, the main purpose of the foreclosure sale is to generate money for the foreclosing lender and not the investor buyers. Check out this Orlando Sentinel article.

Foreclosures aren't going away in Orlando Florida anytime soon, so this should make an interesting new wrinkle in the real estate arena.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Fannie and Freddie to be abolished?

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:45:01 -0600

Obviously something needs to be done with these 2 mortgage giants. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been under the receivership of the federal government since Fall of 2008. Odds are high that either Fannie or Freddie own the 1st mortgage on your home right now.

Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is calling for the whole secondary mortgage market system to be scrapped and to come up with a new one. USA Today article.

To me the Fannie / Freddie system seemed to work well until all these non-conforming and sub-prime loans came into the picture. If we could just keep those type of loans away from Fannie and Freddie, I think the system would work just fine. There's not much anyone can do to prevent prices from falling in half anyway.

Maybe these 2 giants need to be broken up similar to what happened to AT&T in the 1980s. Or maybe all the bad loans need to be sold off to some other entity in order to deal with them directly. Regardless the government shouldn't be controlling this much of the real estate industry.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Central Florida great home deals we sold in January 2010 - Orlando, Clermont, Deltona

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:25:21 -0600

Hard to believe but the first month in 2010 is already behind us. So what happened. January is typically a slower month than most because deals typically take around 30 days to close, and there is less buying/selling activity in December due to the holiday season. Never-the-less, plenty of great deals happened. Take a look at some of the properties featured below that our office sold last month.

Shine Ave Sagebrush Place Sommerset Ave

1. 2290 S. Shine Avenue, Orlando, FL 32806. This is one that acutally never made it to the MLS. It was sold via are hot property email list. Approved short sale deal. 3 bed/2 bath block home just south of Delaney Park. Sold for $92,000 to a cash buyer. It pays to subscribe to our email blast.

2. 7991 Sagebrush Place, Orlando, FL 32822. 4 bed/2 bath. Totally remodeled and in great shape. This was a retail deal and still a steal at that. Sold for just $98,000 after only 14 days on the market.

3. 2621 Carver Avenue, Orlando, FL 32810. 3 bed/1 bath bank foreclosure. Talk about a steal. Sold for only $28,000 to a cash investor.

4. 3345 Sommerset Avenue, Deltona, FL 32738. 4/2/2 bank owned REO. Great condition. Sold to an FHA buyer for just $97,000. Buy your foreclosure today.

5. 10514 Cedar Forest Circle, Clermont, FL 34711. 4/2/2 beautiful home with a great view. Not a short sale or foreclosure. Sold for $145,000.

If you want to get in on the action and buy a killer foreclosure deal, please contact me directly. Take advantage of these unbelievably low prices.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Active Rain Should NOT Ban Political Posts- Real Estate is Political

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:55:05 -0600

Politics has a very strong influence over real estate and business in general. Nearly 50% of most Americans income goes to pay some sort of tax whether it be income tax, FICA, sales tax, telephone tax, unemployment tax, licensing fees, car tags, property tax, etc. And just look at what these new regulations is doing to the mortgage broker industry right now. Major turmoil. If you aren't involved in the political side of things, then probably the only reaosn you are in business now is because of those of us who are fighting tirelessly for your rights.

Via Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes (International Properties and Investments, Inc.):

If You Are A Realtor® You Are In POLITICS!

There is outcry that Active Rain should ban political and religious posts and blogs. There are people who are very polarizing on both sides of this debate.

A Realtor® who does not get involved with the political process does not understand real estate.

The definition of Politics:

If you are a Realtor® - you are a member of NAR. NAR is a special interest group that is heavily involved with definition # 1.

If you are a Realtor®- you are benefiting from the political process that the NAR is involved in ( and sometimes not).

If Active Rain did choose to ban political posts and blogs from its' platform then Active Rain would no longer be a true Real Estate platform. The Google juice that is garnered because of Active Rain has made a difference in political outcomes and to throw that away because some members don't know how to use their mouse to click out of a post they don't want to read is just not a wise decision.

Where would the staff draw the line on what constitutes a political post? There is just too much gray involved.

To prove my point- let's discuss what constitutes 'political' according to the definition in Webster's Dictionary:

1. NAR is a huge advocate to keep banks out of the business of real estate. They lobbied on Capital Hill for keeping banks out and they succeeded. That is a political battle for your livelihood and the well-being of your customers. Any post addressing banks in real estate would NOT be allowed on Active Rain because that is a political post.

2. Your county is going to vote on raising the property taxes in your community. Your board of Realtors® has asked you to support the fight against property taxes being raised. Taxes are political. You write a post to tell your community to get involved with the political process and go to the county meetings- that post would NOT be allowed on Active Rain because it is a political post.

3. FHA guidelines, HUD directives and lending regulation- All political subjects. No posts venting about FHA or HUD would be allowed.

4. Short Sales and HAFA regulations- If you state an opinion or are in favor of regulating banks or not- to post about this is political. Therefore you would no longer be able to write posts about certain aspects of short sales.

5. The Housing Market Boom and Bust is also a political arena. If you venture into writing posts about the housing market rise and fall- those could not be allowed either.

6. Eminent Domain Issues- That is a biggie and guess what- Eminent Domain is VERY political. Too bad we would not be able to help homeowners learn about Eminent Domain issues. Those posts would no longer be allowed.

Let's just say that there is a developer in your town that wants to use eminent domain to take down a section of town to build a hotel or a condominium. He or she is friends with the state representative for this area and you find out about it. You would want to let the people in the neighborhood know that this is taking place- yet- your hands would be tied on Active Rain- that would be a political post.

7. The Financial Crisis- Well, we know we can't go there!

8. Cap and Trade as it effects the sale of new and resale homes. NAR has been lobbying for changes to lift the burden off of homeowners in regards to being required to spend money they don't have in order to just sell their home - this is a political debate that needs to happen. But of course, if political posts were banned from AR- you would never get to have that debate.

9. Property Rights! Huge Real Estate issue. If you don't care about property rights you should not even be selling real estate. Property rights- a political discussion.

10. You as a small business owner have concerns and issues that are being discussed on Capital Hill and that right there turns those concerns into political discussions.

You can take almost any Real Estate subject and discover that it is part of the political discussion going on today. It would be nearly impossible to regulate fairly what constitutes a political post or what does not, then have the word police assigned to seek and ban posts which would result in a loss of membership.

Copyright © 2010 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Active Rain Should NOT Ban Political Posts- Real Estate is Politcal!*

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

List your house in the Gainesville Florida and Alachua County flat fee mls for less

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:58:06 -0600

We list properties in Alachua County and Gainesville Florida. Sell your Alachua County property through us. We are experts in selling properties in Gainesville. Alachua County Realtor. Alachua County real estate.

Flat fee MLS listing Alachua County and Gainesville FL. Discount real estate broker Alachua County and the Gainesville. For sale by owner services Alachua County. List in the MLS for less. Use our FSBO MLS services to list your house or property. Flat fee discount Realtor.

List your home with us in Gainesville. Our buy owner real estate services are the best. Flat fee MLS and fixed fee MLS by owner services available. Contact us if you are looking to buy or sell a house or investment property. Investor MLS realty services.

The Gainesville - Alachua County Association of Realtors uses the Gainesville MLS for their members to search for real estate listings. Our firm has reciprocal rights to list properties directly into the Gainesville MLS. If another flat fee listing service offers to list your property, please make sure they are actually listing your property in the Gainesville MLS and not the Mid Florida Regional MLS or the Northeast Florida MLS, otherwise you will not be exposing your listing to the local Realtors in Gainesville and Alachua County. Home of the Florida Gators.

Click here for more info on our flat fee MLS services.

We can provide our real estate services and discount MLS flat fee listings in Alachua County and all of Central Florida including Alachua, Archer, Gainesville, Hawthorne, High Springs, LaCrosse, Micanopy, Newberry, Ocala, and Waldo FL.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Flat fee MLS listing orlando florida - frequently asked questions

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:43:43 -0500

I see other firms that offer similar services for cheaper than you do. Why should I pay you more? What makes Sand Dollar Realty Group different from these other firms? Many things.
We have written an article on what things to look for in hiring a flat fee MLS broker. Below are many things to look for when choosing your broker.

(1) First our firm is locally owned and operated in Altamonte Springs, Florida (15 minutes north of Orlando). You are not dealing with some out-of-state far away company that you can only access by internet or 1800 number. You can schedule an appointment to come into our office or depending on location you can have us come to your home. We would be glad to meet with you in person or talk with you over the telephone and help you analyze your property, your asking price, and develop a marketing plan.
(2) If your property is not located in Central Florida, we can still help you properly price and market your property. It will be at a distance of course, but we have lived in Florida for 30+ years and we know the various regions of the state quite well.
(3) We have been in business since 1996 and are the largest and most experienced flat fee MLS brokerage in Central Florida. We know what we are doing and will not leave you hanging out there all alone. Many companies that offer flat fee services have not been in business very long and are greatly lacking in experience. And experience counts during a buyer's market.
(4) Many of the super cheapo priced firms provide poor customer service and don't return phone calls or emails promptly. Some firms simply want to list your home online in order to keep the buyer leads for themselves. You will find that we are different. We will email or call you with all buyer leads. If we are not right there to answer the office phone, we will return your call within a reasonably short period of time. In fact broker Rob Arnold's cell phone number is 407-375-4567, if you ever need to speak with him at anytime day or night. A little bit of extra money is a small price to pay to deal with experienced professionals.
(5) We have full-time sales associates that are working to find a buyer for your property and earn the buyer-side commission.
(6) We allow you to upgrade your listing. We can provide you additional services all the way up to a full-service listing for a reasonable additional fee.
(7) We have many great affiliations with local experts, including an affiliation with a local title company, and contacts with many real estate vendors (inspectors, appraisers, insurance, home warranty, mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders and banks, etc.) to help make your transition from listing to closing that much easier.

We also offer a full-service listing service similar to those offered by most other real estate brokerages. But unlike those other brokerages our agents have the flexibility to negotiate commission rates to help save you money.

Also we can offer a menu-based pricing system (a la carte services), allowing you to only pay for those services that you actually need us to perform. Including lockbox rental, online virtual/video tours, contract preparation and review, offer negotiation, closing coordination and attendance, etc. Click here for more information about our full-service listings. Or click for more information about menu-based services that we offer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Seminole County pulls the plug on proposed stormwater assessment

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:34:48 -0500

I just got back from the hearing this afternoon at the Seminole County commission chambers. The big issue was the proposed stormwater assessment fee to be charged to all property owners in unincorporated Seminole County. See my previous blog post: New proposed stormwater assessment in Seminole County Florida

The chambers had some 100+ people packed into it. I arrived about 30 minutes early and the chamber was already packed full of people. The parking lot outside had probably another 500 people in it. Pretty much everyone there appeared to be in opposition to the fee with many people holding "no tax" signs.

In a surprising turn of events, shortly after the hearing started and before any member of the public could speak out Commissioner Van Der Weide made a motion to indefinitely postpone the assessment. The motion did end up passing and thus the assessment was killed before it even got much discussion.

The county commission really stirred up a hornet's nest with this proposed fee. I'm just glad it is gone for now. At some point it may come back on the agenda, so keep an eye out for it. Governments everywhere are trying to nickel and dime citizens every way that they can.

As a side note, the county commission also decided to slightly raise the millage rate county-wide so residents will still pay a little bit more. The final vote for the millage increase is on 9/22/09.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Kissimmee, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Market statistics update September 2009 for Orlando - Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Orange & Seminole

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:10:25 -0500

The Orlando Regional Realtor Association released their monthly housing statistics for Orange County and Seminole County for the month of September 2009 (area covers Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Lake Mary, Winter Garden, Winter Park, Longwood, etc.). Here is a link to the full housing report.

ORRA Originated Sales

Sept. 2009

5.09%

15,967

4,030

3,858

8,790

857

846

1,014

2,151

Inventory levels dropped slightly from 16,361 in August to 15,967 in September. This continues the decline that started around summertime 2008.

The number of properties currently sale pending is at the highest level ever seen with 8,790 properties under contract. In September 2008, this figure was just 3,256 and in September 2007 it was just 2,012. Big change. However, as of this morning 4,371 of these pending sales were short sales which presently have less than a 1/3 chance of making it to closing. :-(

For the 3rd month in a row, the number of expired and withdrawn listings 1,860 (ones that did not sell and fell off the market) were less than the number of sold listings 2,151. While this number of solds is lower than the June, July, and August numbers it is still very strong considering that the market typically slows down once school starts back up.

The average and median sales prices declined slightly yet again. This is caused by the all the bank owned REOs and the short sales that are driving prices downward. Median price was $125,000 and Average price was $156,400 for September 2009.

The Orlando Sentinel had an article on these figures today if you want to read up on more details. The $8000 tax credit will be expiring in 6 weeks. So it if you want to tap into it, you must do so immediately.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Property tax notices (originally posted 8/13/07)

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:28:34 -0500

Oh boy am I fired up! I received my TRIM notices from Orange County over the weekend. All of my property tax bills increased since last year except for 2 of them. I did get a $21 break on one and a $207 break on another one. I did get a $1600 increase on 1 bill though.

All I can hear is governor Charlie Crist's words echoing in my ears, "Taxes will drop like a rock." Thanks a lot Charlie. I guess the rock was really a boulder that just landed on my head. I really am amazed at what a fiasco this property tax situation has become. And let's not even go into the insurance issue. That supposedly average decrease of $174 sure sounds appealing right now.

On a friendlier note, I was just able to negotiate an awesome deal for a customer. Asking price is $250,000. We got the sellers to come down all the way to $160,000. This for a 3/1 block house not far from downtown Orlando. This is definitely the time to buy as long as you do not need to immediately re-sell.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

July MLS statistics (originally posted 8/12/07)

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:27:38 -0500

The market continues to slow down according to the July 2007 MLS statistics for Orange/Seminole Counties. The number of active listings appears to have flattened out in July at 26,018. However, this leveling off of inventory is not because more properties are selling. Instead it is because there are fewer new listings and more current listings are expiring or being withdrawn. In fact expireds and withdrawns have increased by 16% since July 2006 while sold listings have decreased by 43% during the same period. Unfortunately now is not the time to be selling unless you absolutely have to.

While this is disheartening news for sellers, this is great news for buyers. The choice of properties available right now is absolutely fantastic. Also the chance of finding a good deal from a very motivated (even desperate) seller is very high. The chance to get good creative financing terms is high too. If you can afford the seller's current monthly payments, many sellers will be happy to simply deed their property over to a buyer "subject to the existing loan" so the seller can walk away from the property.

There is an old Wall Street saying to "Buy when there is blood in the streets." In my opinion, that time is definitely now! Just make sure that when you do buy that you buy at the right price and terms. You need to have a firm "exit strategy" in mind before you go to closing. Otherwise you might be the next person that is bleeding. If you need help evaluating a deal, feel free to contact me and I will look at your numbers.

Rob Arnold, ABR, CPL, GRI, Full service and investor friendly Realtor, Managing real estate broker, Licensed mortgage broker, Notary Public

407-389-7318 http://www.sdrhouses.com/ http://www.webuyhousesflorida.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com