I'm dedicating this post to swimming pools. That's right...swimming pools. We have swimming pools everywhere in Florida. Here is a picture of our pool.

This is what they are supposed to look like, sparkling, refreshing and very inviting. It makes you want to jump in doesn't it? 

Now contrast our swimming pool with these.

This is what pools look like when the property is a REO (bank owned) or a short sale. Not all the time but certainly most of the time. 

Needless to say these can be a HUGE problem. There are probably 1,000s of pools, that look like these, throughout Florida. The first thing that comes to mind is "Mosquito Hell"!!! Not to mention snakes and a myriad of other creatures that we have not been able to identify. Here's an article from The Orlando Sentinel about this issue. 

Another problem we have is the theft of pool equipment and heaters. I met Andrew Cox of Cox Inspections and a fellow ActiveRain member at one of my pending REO properties this morning. Andy beat me there but called minutes after his arrival to ask me where the pool pump, filter and heater were. Beats me. I swear they were there 5 weeks ago when my buyer and I negotiated the deal. Good thing we have the right to inspect and CANCEL!!!

So folks, foreclosures are affecting the market in many ways. Can you imagine living next to one of these pools? 

Oh well....that's all I got for you today. I'm going swimming!!! Want to join me?

Hi folks. Here's an update on the foreclosure situation in Florida. I read an article earlier today on our Florida Association of Realtors website stating that Florida has 77,000 homeowners in foreclosure!!! This is second only to California.  

I also spoke to a loss mitigation negotiator at Countrywide yesterday who mentioned Countrywide, or I guess Bank of America now, has 76% of the Nation's foreclosures and that they are expecting this number to increase in August when ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) are set to adjust again. EDIT:< Is this figure accurate? I don't know but it does line up with what I am seeing in my particular market, Poinciana FL.>

Then there was a report recently on channel 9 in Lakeland that mentioned one in every seven homes (15%) in Poinciana FL. was in some stage of foreclosure.  

My last Poinciana market report, for the first half of 2008, showed that 70% of the homes that have sold this year were either REOs (banked owned) or Short Sales (pre-foreclosures). It also showed that values in Poinciana are down 48% since late 2006. 

So folks, it is evident that we are in this mess for quite a while. BUT.....there is some help available if you are struggling with keeping your home. 10,000 Attorneys, throughout the State of Florida, have now partnered with Florida Legal Services to provide free legal services as part of an effort to keep Florida homeowners in their homes. Here's what I read today: 

• "Florida Legal Services and the Florida Bar Association have partnered in establishing a toll-free hotline - (866) 607-2187 - that consumers can call. They'll be asked a few initial questions about their situation to ensure accurate placement, and then be sent to a free attorney. The attorney will then negotiate with the lender on behalf of the client to keep the home from being foreclosed." 

I have not called them yet but will early next week to see what additional information I can get. I will be posting it here on my blog so.......ya'll come back now, ya here!!!! How cool is that?

MORE INFO FROM BROKER BRYANT... THE SOURCE FOR POINCIANA REAL ESTATE

Copyright © 2008 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved 

Hi folks. I was on the phone early today speaking with a Legal Process Server, you know, the people that serve foreclosure papers. This server, Tammy, was talking to me about her job and how busy she has been, swamped, was the word she used. According to her she has been spending most of her days delivering papers in Poinciana and Davenport FL. 

Poinciana, of course, is my market area and Davenport is an area near Disney World that is predominately short term rental vacation homes. This market has also been hit real hard. With the declining economy, folks are just not spending money on vacation and the owners of these properties, mostly from the UK, are not generating enough income to pay the mortgages. 

I would not want Tammy's job. She said she gets cussed at, screamed at and threatened by homeowners just for doing her job. She also bumps into tenants that are very surprised to hear that even though they have been paying their rent every month, their home is now being foreclosed due to the landlord pocketing the rent instead of making their mortgage payments. This is a HUGE problem in my area. 

A friend of mine is the property manager for a large real estate company in Kissimmee and was telling me how she is spending quite a bit of her time relocating tenants due to foreclosures. 

I can't even imagine how pissed I would be to find out I had to move from my home even though I had been honoring my lease. But what can they do? They have no recourse, as lenders do not have to honor leases, once the property is foreclosed. No eviction process is involved. It is my understanding, that once the property is foreclosed on, the tenant has to move. Not only will they have to move but they can kiss their deposit and any advance rents good bye. Ouch!!!!

Here's an interesting article that will shed some light on what a tenant may be able to do to postpone the inevitable. 

So, what can we as REALTORS® do, to protect tenants, if we are working with them? I think the first thing I would do is research the property. If I see the property was bought in 2005 for $250,000, was on the market for 2 years "for sale" and now is being rented for $900.00 a month, I'd be very, very concerned. This property is probably owned by a "flipper" that "flopped", who is now making a last ditch effort to recoup some money. I believe I would suggest my customer/tenant take a pass on this one. 

Maybe we could have the lease worded so the rent is being paid to an escrow company who is making the mortgage payments on the owner's behalf. It would also make sense to have the security deposit and advance rents paid into escrow as well. Do you have any ideas? 

If you're a tenant, who has just been served, I would contact an Attorney ASAP. This problem is not going to just go away. Be proactive. 

OK that's all I have for you now. Any thoughts? 

Hi folks, today I want to talk about selling properties in Poinciana FL. It's brutal!!! The problem I'm running up against is Mr. and Mrs. Average Seller are just not able to compete with the wholesale market i.e. banked owned properties and short sales.

As primarily a listing Broker, I have been banging my head against the wall for about a year now. The biggest issue is a lack of equity. Homeowners in Poinciana have lost about 40% in value in the last 15 months.

What this means is most Sellers are just not in a position to sell, unless they are able to bring money to the table or they apply for a short sale. But what if they don't qualify for a short sale? What if they are making payments but need to sell for health, financial or any other valid reasons that are not related to being in a pre-foreclosure situation?

They're screwed! Wanting to help these folks but not being able to is very frustrating. But....I have to try. So we price them as best as we can based on that Seller's particular situation. Sometimes it works.....and most of the time it doesn't. No amount of marketing will overcome pricing.

Unfortunately, I don't see much light at the end of the tunnel, for the near future, in Poinciana FL.

Here are some stats for Poinciana Fl. These stats only include residential properties in the Poinciana neighborhoods and were pulled from the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service on 3-26-2008. It's deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

As of today, there are 1323 active listings. 415 of these are either bank owned or pre-foreclosure!! What's interesting is that the average list price for the distressed properties is $154,500 or $88 sq ft living area. For Mr. and Mrs. Average Seller the average list price is $188,804 or $111 per sq ft.

There are 89 pending listings. These are properties under contract that have not closed yet. I'm sure a bunch of these are short sales and may or may not close at all. The average list price for the pendings is $142,800 or $78 per sq ft. Remember the closed price on these pending listings will be lower.

There have been 61 sales since the beginning of the year. 33 of these(54%) were distressed properties and sold for an average price of $144,000 or $78 per sq ft. Average days on market was 109. There were 28 closings for Mr. and Mrs. Average Seller at an a average selling price of $149,000 or $88 per sq ft. Days on market was 143.

So, Mr. and Mrs. Average Seller are getting about $10 more per sq ft BUT it is taking 34 days longer to sell. Assuming of course they are in a position to price low enough to get it sold. Most are not.

Poinciana is averaging 20 closings a month out of a little over 1300 listings. What that means is 98.5% of the listings are NOT selling at all!! These are the facts.

The most active REO(bank owned property) specialist, REALTOR®, currently has 39 active residential listings in Poinciana. I have 16. He has closed on 3. I have only closed on 1!!! Even the wholesalers are struggling in Poinciana FL.

Folks, it just doesn't get much worse than this. My advice is, unless you absolutely have to sell....don't. Unless you are in a position to price lower than the wholesale listings your chances of succeeding are about 1.5%. Those are not good odds.

However, if you MUST sell, then give me call. I'd be happy to come over and assess your situation. Who knows? Maybe yours will be the next listing I sell. And maybe not. It is what it is.

Thank goodness for Buyers and Investors!!!

And that's the way it is in Poinciana FL. How are things in your part of the world?

*****Recent Poinciana Market Reports.

Copyright © 2008 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Bryant Tutas
Broker/Owner
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker
http://www.brokerbryant.com/
***The content of this blog is solely my opinion*** 

Today, I decided to go out and show a couple of foreclosure homes to a potential buyer. The buyer's a Broker from up north ....so, it was fun.

The house, we looked at, sounded pretty decent in the MLS, 5 bedrooms 4.5 baths with over 2800 sq ft living area and only 4 years old with an in ground pool!!

You know, I know that REOs can look pretty rough inside but I figured it's only 4 years old and it's in a very good neighborhood, how bad can it be?

The home sold for $375,000 in 2006 and was foreclosed on mid 2007. It's currently on the market for $204,900!!!! I figured it would be worth about $250,000 if it was in pristine condition. Well needless to say it wasn't exactly in pristine condition.

When we pulled up front it didn't look too bad. Good solid structure and roof. Upon opening the door we noticed the normal dirty carpet and dirty paint. Well this isn't too bad at all!!

Then we started really looking around. The pool has a wood cover over it so nobody will fall into the dark abyss. I'm not sure what may be living in that pool but I think we'll leave it for the pool man to figure out. Yikes!!! Could be gators and snakes in that sucka.

Then we noticed every door in the house had been removed along with all the fixtures and appliances including the dishwasher. Oh well....no biggie. A little paint, some flooring and appliances and we should be good to go.

So we head upstairs to see what we got going on up there. Hey where's the heating and air system? It's been yanked out!! Yep, they took the complete HVAC system....inside and out. They also took all the pool equipment including the filtering system and the pump. I wonder what it looks like behind the walls?

If the bank accepts my Buyer's $140,000 offer, maybe, we'll find out.

Just another day in the life of a REALTOR®. So how are foreclosures looking in your area?

***Bank owned property. Sold "As Is". Needs TLC***

Copyright © 2008 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Bryant Tutas
Broker/Owner
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker
http://www.brokerbryant.com/
***The content of this blog is solely my opinion*** 

FORECLOSURES (REOs) IN POINCIANA FL

Yesterday I wrote a post titled "Buying foreclosures in Poinciana Fl". The post was a little on the boring side but it was written for a reason....Google juice!! I just listed a couple of REO (bank owned) properties last week so I'm trying to attract attention from anyone wanting to buy or sell a foreclosure in Poinciana Fl.

Since ActiveRain has tremendous Google juice I figured a post about foreclosures with a key word rich title would work well for me. Well.....it did!!!

In fact with only one post, posted 24 hours ago, I now have the number one position on Google for the following searches.

• Buying a foreclosure in Poinciana

• Selling a foreclosure in Poinciana

• REOs in Poinciana

• Foreclosures in Poinciana 

• Poinciana foreclosures for sale

• List a foreclosure in Poinciana

• Find a foreclosure in Poinciana

• Sell a foreclosure in Poinciana

Folks, that's incredible!!!! Of course I do have an advantage in that I work a very specific niche market but it will work in yours as well. It just may take a little longer.

My goal is to break into the foreclosure market. Foreclosures are on the rise in Poinciana and I need to get me some of those suckas to sell!! So I'm fishin' for foreclosure business on Google.

Being in the first position for these searches presents me as the expert on foreclosures in the Poinciana area. Even though I am not the top foreclosure expert in Poinciana....yet, being first on Google gives the perception that I am.

And really, perception and presentation, are a big chunk of what we do. It's how we get business. Of course you do have to be able to back it up to keep it. Fortunately for me, I am very good at what I do, so if they call, they won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I wrote this post to show you how strong our blogging efforts are when it comes to Google. Write about what you know and what you do and the business will come.

Now, if anyone wants to buy or sell a foreclosure (REO) in Poinciana Fl give Broker Bryant a call. I'll be waiting.

By the way, can you guess how much that bass weighs in the picture? I caught it yesterday from my back yard. This may be a trick question based on my presentation and your perception. Give it a try. I'll post the answer later.

Copyright © 2008 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Bryant Tutas
Broker/Owner
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker
http://www.brokerbryant.com/
***The content of this blog is solely my opinion***

Hi folks. How often have you had Buyers call you wanting to buy a foreclosure? Usually, when this happens to me it's first time homebuyers who are really just looking for a "deal". Of course many times they also have no money.

When this happens I spend time with them on the phone explaining how difficult it is to purchase a foreclosed property. Not only is it difficult but if it's a "good deal" you are going to need to have strong finances to even have a shot at getting it. Investors buy the "good deals" and they play with cash.

Foreclosures can be a good opportunity to purchase a property below market value but they really aren't for the inexperienced Buyer. If you have no money and need the Seller to pay all of your closing costs, then more than likely, you will NOT get a "good deal" in the foreclosure market. It can be done but you will certainly want to work with an experienced agent and you will want to make sure you have been approved for a mortgage before shopping.

You will also have to move fast. The property will be sold "As Is" with right to inspect. You will want to have it inspected and be prepared to walk away if you are not in a position to pay for repairs. You will not be reimbursed for inspection costs if you don‘t close on it.

Janet Guilbault wrote a post earlier this week about one of the pitfalls of purchasing a foreclosure, the dreaded per diem penalty!!! Unlike a normal purchase, if the closing is delayed the Buyer will be required to pay a penalty for every day the deal doesn't close beyond the contractual closing date. This is usually $100 to $200 per day! And if you can't close it at all......kiss your deposit good bye.

I wrote an offer on a foreclosure property this week for one of my Buyers. The nine page bank addendum, in addition to the per diem clause, also had this little gem in it:

SELLER'S UNCONDITIONAL RIGHT TO CANCEL THE CONTRACT AND/OR ADDENDUM:

AT ANY TIME AFTER THE EXECUTION OF THE CONTRACT AND/OR ADDENDUM, SELLER SHALL HAVE THE UNLIMITED RIGHT AND AT IT'S COMPLETE DISCRETION, TO ELECT TO DEEM THE CONTRACT AND/OR ADDENDUM BETWEEN THE BUYER AND SELLER NULL AND VOID AND NOT CLOSE THE TRANSACTION FOR ANY REASON AND THE PARTIES SHALL BE RESTORED TO THEIR ORIGINAL POSITION AS IF THE CONTRACT AND/OR ADDENDUM NEVER EXISTED.

SHOULD SELLER EXERCISE IT'S DECISION TO NULLIFY THE CONTRACT AND/OR ADDENDUM, THEN SELLER SHALL RETURN THE DEPOSIT AS DEFINED IN PARAGRAPH B(5) TO THE BUYER. HOWEVER, IT IS SELLER'S SOLE DISCRETION AS TO WHETHER OR NOT IT WILL REIMBURSE THE BUYER FOR ANY COSTS, AS OUTLINED IN PARAGRAPH 6(B), OR OTHERWISE.

THE BUYER AGREES THAT SHOULD THE SELLER CANCEL THE SALE FOR ANY REASON THAT THEY WAIVE THEIR RIGHT TO SUE FOR SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE AND/OR DAMAGES AND FULLY RELEASE THE SELLER AS FURTHER SET FORTH IN RELEASE CONTAINED WITHIN PARAGARPH W HEREIN.
***********************************************

This clause basically states that the Seller can back out of the contract at anytime prior to closing for any reason at all. They will give the deposit back but may or may not reimburse the Buyer for any costs they have paid i.e inspections, survey and appraisal.

The Buyer is obligated to perform under the contract the Seller isn't.

We removed this clause when we made the offer but the Bank refused to negotiate with us if we made any changes on their addendum. So we put it back in and agreed to it.

Fortunately, my Buyer is very experienced, is paying cash and is willing to take the risk to purchase a property 20% below market value. We can only hope that the Bank doesn't find a better deal before my Buyer has a chance to close. We want to close in 10 days to limit the risk. So we'll see how it turns out.

The point of this post is to be very careful when negotiating on Bank owned properties(REOs). Make sure to read every word of that Bank addendum and make sure your Buyer fully understands what rights they are giving up.

Buying foreclosures can be a good way to get a "deal". Just make sure you know what you are getting into. They are not for the inexperienced. In my market you do not have to buy a foreclosure to get a "good deal". There are better and safer ways to buy Real Estate. Find a good and experienced REALTOR® to help you out. Better yet......call Broker Bryant! Any thoughts?

Copyright © 2008 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Bryant Tutas
Broker/Owner
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker
http://www.brokerbryant.com/
***The content of this blog is solely my opinion***

Hi humans. My name is A. House and I'm five years old. I know that doesn't sound old to you but for A. House in Poinciana Fl that's pretty old. Some nice folks gave birth to me back in January of 2002. They liked me a lot. They made me look real purdy too. I was dressed up in bright red carpet and my skin inside and out was bright pink. I guess they figured since my street name was Flamingo they would make me look like a bird. I didn't mind too much since they took excellent care of me.

I knew they loved me. They paid $149,500 for me in January of 2002 which was a lot of money for A. House, my size, back then. I remember something about them not needing any money to give birth to me. So, maybe some of that money was closing costs but I'm not sure.

Everything was going well and then all of a sudden in late 2003 they quit taking care of me. I thought they didn't love me anymore. They quit making payments and started letting my grass grow and everything. I was neglected.

Then in May of 2004 this nice lady come over and stuck a sign in my yard and was trying to get people to give my humans $129,900 for me. I guess no one wanted me because 30 days later the sign was gone and my humans moved out. I was left here all by myself. It sucked.

I was all alone for more than two years. Finally, some guy in a three piece suit adopted me. But he didn't care about me, he never even looked at me, just put me on the books and renamed me REO. My name is A. House not REO!

Here I was, all alone again, until February 2007 when this big guy came over and stuck another sign in my yard. I don't know who he was but he was sooooo good looking. He was nice too. He had all these people come over and they gave me a bath, cut my grass and made me look purdy again. I was so happy. I thought he was going to move in and take care of me but he was just trying to find me some humans to adopt me for $185,000.

Not only was the big guy sooooo good looking but he was an excellent adoption Broker too! In fact, only 19 days later, some humans came in and decided they wanted me! I was so excited! I was so tired of being alone and just wanted someone to come stay with me. It's not good for A. House to be alone.

Then a few weeks later something happened. The guy, that was sooooo good looking, came back and put his "For Sale" thingie on his sign again. Something about the sub-prime fall out. The humans, that wanted to adopt me, couldn't do it any more. I was pissed!!!

It was very frustrating. Humans kept coming over and walking all over me but nobody wanted me. I felt so inadequate and started getting a real bad inferiority complex. I think the sooooo good looking guy was getting frustrated too. He changed my price to $165,000.

Then in August, another human came over and walked all over me. He had this funny looking thing in his hand and it looked like he was punching in numbers or something. I don't know if he loved me or not but he told the sooooo good looking guy that he would adopt me for $150,000. I guess the sooooo good looking guy was tired of coming over every week and checking up on me because he said, "deal!"

Three weeks later I had a new human! He was cool too. His name was Mr. Flipper. He came in and pulled up all my bright red carpet and replaced it with all this tile stuff. It was a little cold but it was real shiny!! I was lookin' good! I was so excited. I couldn't wait for this human to move in and take care of me. No more loneliness for me!

Well, was I ever wrong, Mr. Flipper, sent another lady over and she stuck a sign in my yard this morning. At least Mr. Flipper thinks I'm worth a lot of money. He now wants $225,000 for someone to adopt me! While I'm flattered, I fear I will be lonely for a long time to come. He ain't never goin' to get someone to pay $225,000 to adopt me. All the other Houses around me only get $150,000. Why is he doing this to me? I'm A. House, I'm not a retirement fund!

Maybe this time they'll change HIS name......to Mr. Flopper! You humans suck!

Copyright © 2007 Broker Bryant Real Estate Ramblings | All Rights Reserved

Hi folks. I'm writing this post today to bring you guys a dose of "feel good about your market" stuff. So if you are feeling down and your market is beating you up, sit back, relax and have yourself a little read. It will make you feel better I'm sure. Unless of course you are one of my Sellers. In that case....sorry...but it is what it is.

Our local major paper, the Orlando Sentinel, has been running a series on foreclosures and how they affect the market in Central Fl. There's a link below to the article that ran this past Monday. The Sellers, who are the feature of the article, are my Sellers in Poinciana. Some of you guys may know them as "The Lovely's". I'm briefly in the article as well. Anyway, here's the link, check it out.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the series:

"Only 924 homes were sold in September by Orlando Realtors in their core market, the fewest re-sales since January 1999. By comparison, sales in September 2005 -- near the market's record-setting peak -- totaled 2,964. A year ago, 2,054 homes changed hands in the core market, which consists mainly of Orange and Seminole counties but includes some deals in surrounding counties"

"South Poinciana is home to the worst-hit ZIP code in Central Florida -- 34759 -- where nearly 300 homeowners have defaulted on their mortgages so far this year"

Hey....do you see up there where it states: "South Poinciana is home to the worst-hit ZIP code in Central Florida" Isn't that cool? My market is numero uno baby!!!! Hey if you have to be something you might as well be number 1. We don't do things half-ass in Poinciana!

My market encompasses two zip codes. The worse, South Poinciana, is 34759 and has 386 homes in some stage of default (at least 3 payments behind), foreclosure or auction. North Poinciana, zip code 34758, has 307.

Currently there are 1673 active listings (single family) homes in these two zip codes. That's actually down about 50 listings from last month. Most of those properties have been removed from the market. I withdrew 9 listings myself. In September we had 32 closings TOTAL! September 2006 there were 102. So we are holding steady at about a 60% decrease in sales for the year. Year to date there have been 480 sales. Last year same period 1184. So again holding steady at around 60% decrease. Now if I were to extrapolate out the sales for this year we may hit 575. That means our absorption rate (amount of time needed to sale existing inventory) in Poinciana is about 3 years.

Folks, Tutas Towne Realty, Inc (me) is having our 4^th best year out of 14 years in business. So I'm here to tell you that no matter how bad your market is you CAN not only survive it but do pretty darn well if you keep motivated and keep moving forward. Hang in there my friends. Do your best. Be honest with your Sellers. That's really all we can do. Things will get better, just not anytime soon.

OK, that's it. Can anyone out there beat these numbers? My opinion is that Poinciana Fl is the worse market in the country right now. Any one able to prove me wrong? PLEASE!!!!! Someone make my day. If not, I hope I made yours. Oops! Got to run....my shift at Wal-Mart starts at five. Or not!!!

****All data is from Realtytrac, The Orlando Sentinel and the MFRMLS and of course Broker Bryant.

All content copyright © 2007 - Broker Bryant Real Estate Ramblings