I guess 4 Hurricanes were not enough

'Like an explosion,' twister rips Palm Bay
Storm injures 5, damages 25 residences

Homestead Taxes/Waterstone Development

http://myhomesteadtaxes.com/

This makes for interesting reading. What a mess.

My understanding is the homeowners in this development were never told about The CDD which has raised some homeowners tax bill in upwards of $10,000

3 Contracts

I know it is a seller's market here... I wrote 3 contracts this weekend and here is how it went.

Contract 1: Submitted to selling agent Thursday morning. Reasonable/starter home for $360,000. Buyer submits a $5000 Earnest money deposit close the end of March. Excellent buyer with excellent credit. Not good enough for the Seller who thinks he is D. Trump. He wants $10,000 and all contingencies removed with in 10 days including inspections and appraisal! And the EM non-refundable. Buyer is very frustrated but wants the house so he agrees to his unreasonable demands. The seller's agent appologizes for the seller and explains he is difficult to work with.

Contract 2: Offer submitted Friday morning. $155,000 not good enough for this seller either. But we have a "verbal" counter offer but no "written" counter offer. It is now Monday. Maybe I will see it sometime today. My buyer leaves to go back where they are moving from tomorrow.

Contract 3: Offer submitted Friday morning $147,000. Submitted to the agent (she is the owner). She was all excited to tell me about the place and to sell it. And now she does not return ANY calls after leaving several messages regarding the contract. And when you call her cell phone it says she can not take any more messages because her voice mail is full? Does she check it? It is not like she has to find the seller?? I had to call a mutual friend to find out what is going on with it (because she is getting a referral fee) and was told by the mutual friend that she will get back to me on Monday... we'll see. Sad thing is this buyer is leaving tomorrow as well so if she does not get the contract she has no more time to find something else.

What ever happened to "time is of the essence" in real estate. Or is it "lets hold it for a few days not call the selling agent back for a while and see if we can get multiple offers and drive the first buyer crazy while waiting to see if they got the house?"

You know I am not sure, it could. I know that if you look up north (like NJ, NY) land being a HUGE commodity, and pricing out of control because there is no more land. So likewise in Miami where do you go… where there is land. Sad thing is we are losing our farms due to land values. If you can buy and acre for $150,000 multiply that by 20 acres and you are rich. So why bust your butt farming. Lets hope that the community looks at planning and development control. Right now the schools are over-maxed. And the taxes in some area are extreme due to the CDD’s. Knowledge is power. If you are concerned I’d definitely attend the Chamber functions as well as the City meetings to voice your opinion we do not have enough attendance in that area. Btw, thanks for the blog!

wow what happened??

My realtor friends and lenders were complaining all of January that business had died. Well that changed. I think as of February 8th this place has gone crazy. My phone is ringing off the hook! My email is out of control! My lender friend can not see straight and is working 9am-9pm. Sellers have total control of the market and buyers had better realize that or they will be out of luck when it comes to getting the home that they want. I wrote 6 contacts and listed a home in the last 7 days. All six contracts were at either list price or just shy of it. The listing sold the next day at full price with multiple offers. If a seller has their home priced right and not at some ridiculous amount it should sell quickly!! More specific, if it is clean and ready to go. Did I say CLEAN I am so sick of showing dirty houses. Mr Seller... CLEAN! Hire a cleaning company before you put it up for sale... CLEAN. Anyway, I think we are going to see record numbers this month. 2005 Looks to be another strong year. If you are thinking of selling... NOW IS THE TIME. We are so short inventory of GOOD CLEAN homes and we all have buyers waiting to buy that home.

I also had the not-so good advantage of working with an "off" name discount real estate company. Geez, where do they find their realtors?? They have no experience and no knowledge and have no idea how to put a contract together.... help me!

Buyer's if you are looking in this market, don't goof around get your contract signed around as quickly as possible or you may lose out.

Real Estate Prices

Sales in The Homestead/Relands areas
Area 78
1/2004 (16) closed sales
Area 79
1/2004 (21) closed sales
Area 68
1/2004 (10) closed sales
Area 69
1/2004 (31) closed sales
_________________________

Area 78
1/2005 (11) Closed Sales
Area 79
1/2005 (35) Closed Sales
Area 68
1/2005 (4) Closed Sales
Area 69
1/2005 (19) Closed Sales

Does anyone feel like the market is slowing down in re-sales. Area 79 is so full of new construction that is why the 35 closed sales in January....flips???