Real Estate Education

Home owners and buyers in the St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay real estate market, beware of rising flood insurance rates. You may have notice an increase in your flood policy premiums as of January 1st 2013, well this is only the beginning.  The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 becomes effective October 1st, 2013. [...]

Congratulations, we’ve officially moved to the seller’s market here in Tampa Bay! The inventory of homes for sale is currently at the 4 months consumption rate and that is very low compared to 6.5 months same time last year. Low inventory and continuous strong demand from buyer is currently causing prices to start going up.  [...]

The Madness Fire Is On And Banks Pour Oil On It Yesterday James and I went to a listing appointment.  We researched comparable sales and market stats and the market value for the home we will be listing is between 250k and 280k.  And at the high point of this range I would be a [...]

We are officially starting our monthly newsletter.  Frankly, I don’t know what kind of information would perk your interest on a regular basis, yet we’ll try to provide only high quality content.  We are Realtors, so naturally we want to share news related to real estate in St Petersburg and Tampa Bay area.  But we [...]

And Why It Is Important In Real Estate I believe one can get a degree in communications.  What to say, how to say it and when to say it can pretty much determine your communication success not only in business but also in your private life.  We must remember who we are trying to communicate [...]

Obtaining an FHA loan for purchasing a home in St Petersburg is a huge advantage for home buyers.  The downpayment is very low, only 3.5%, the loan is guaranteed by the government and is assumable by future buyers, which can be a great selling point down the road when rates go up. At the same [...]

Yes, it is 2013 and January is quickly gaining speed!  But some of our clients are starting to wonder, how did 2012 do in terms on real estate? We’ve made a couple videos for you to sum up 2012 real estate market activity in St Petersburg and all Tampa Bay.  Take a look and you’ll [...]

By guest blogger/writer Jared Diamond The real estate forecast for 2013 is cautiously optimistic.  Modest gains are expected in leasing, rents, and pricing across the nation.  Quick profits will still be a distant dream for developers and investors who have been hoping to make a killing, after all, the recession continues and taxes and prices [...]

Things To Remember When Making An Offer On A Short Sale Recently I’ve submitted an offer on a short sale listing in St Petersburg.  As typical, seeing that the property has been on the market for a couple months, we went a little below the list price, but within reason.  I could find several comparable [...]

As A Realtor You Have To Choose Your Position On Zillow And Trulia We have an interesting discussion going on our Tampa Bay Realtors® Facebook group, which  I started over a year ago with a purpose of educating and helping local Tampa Bay real estate agents.  It’s an open group where we share experience, exchange referrals and post [...]

Definitions You Should Know Many of us in Tampa Bay still don’t know the difference between a mortgage, note and warranty deed.  Here’s a quick review of definitions.  I hope it helps you when you are buying or selling a home in St Petersburg, FL.  The terms have the same meaning throughout the USA. Mortgage [...]

Understand the FHA short sale process Today, when so many home owners in St Petersburg are still “under water” a short sale may be your only option if you need to sell your home.  But type of loan do you have? Here’s an outline of a FHA loan short sale process. All short sales are [...]

And What It Means For Seller And Agent I feel like I’m about to embarrass a few agents in my area.  Let it be if so.  My commitment first of all is to a client and so should it be for every listing agent in Tampa Bay area.  I’d like to talk about Realtor.com and [...]

Luxury Short Sales In St Pete and Tampa Bay For some people the term “high-end short sale” sounds like an oxymoron.  There are definitely more lower and middle price range short sale listings in St Petersburg and all Tampa Bay market.  Typically the homes that are considered luxury start at a $500k price point.  Some [...]

And Who Will Get A Piece Of The Robo-Signing Settlement Pie? I’m sure that by now you’re heard enough about the settlement between the government and 5 major banks.  The lenders did a naughty thing trying to speed up the foreclosures. Technically a bank can initiate such process by filing a lis pendens on someone [...]

Car Dealerships Compared to Real Estate Brokerages. IS the Power in the Brand? I find many similarities between car dealerships and real estate brokerages.  Car salesmen and real estate agents typically rank low in public trust, have the perception of being sleazy, unprofessional and are thought to only think about their commission.  This is often [...]

Realtor.com vs. Homes.com – you choose Recently I wrote a post on Zillow and Trulia.  I hope it was helpful to read on pros and cons.  It’s time to review the other two giants on the real estate search arena. Realtor.com – should I say more? Perhaps. Realtor.com – is without a doubt the leader [...]

Criminal record and real estate license Interesting article was posted on Sunday on Tampabay.com.  It talks about real estate agents and if they should be allowed to obtain their license if they have a criminal record.  The author points out that different states have different regulations, where some don’t allow former criminals to have a [...]

Got Florida Real Estate Tax Bill? If you live in St Petersburg, Florida just like me you have probably received your real estate tax bill.  You either have it escrowed and paid by your lender, who then breaks it down and adds to your monthly mortgage payments, or you pay one lump sum. HOW IS [...]

Short Sale Relocation Assistance Program by Bank of America. What is it all about? We love your real estate questions and we enjoy answering them to the best of our ability.  The big news for St Petersburg and all Tampa Bay residents in the past few weeks was the fact that Bank of America rolled [...]

Wells Fargo makes a terminally ill seller pay defficiency after short sale We’ve processed hundreds of short sales.  In deed, in St Petersburg and all Tampa Bay area the words “short sale” have become so common, people mention them whiling drinking their Starbucks coffee and socializing with friends, and the local news talk about short [...]

Home searching. What is the best tool? Ok, so I did a little research for you.  I used Compete.com which is a web solution that offers statistics on websites’ traffic.  It’s not necessarily a 100% accurate, but quite reliable as we actually compared the stats of our own website traffic data with Compete’s.  Numbers were [...]

Short Sale Process. What you need to know. Perhaps you ‘ve been behind on your payments, gone through a hardship and/or need to relocate.  Regardless of the reason, if you must sell your house and find that your home value is lower than what you owe, there are only 2 ways to sell your home [...]

Foreclosure filings, home prices, REOs and sinkhole madness One of the things we mentioned last week is that there’s a possibility of a Seller’s Market in place in Tampa Bay area, specifically in St Petersburg.  While nationally the median sales prices are slightly down, be careful to rely on national real estate data.  Always remember [...]

Is real estate going up? Is it time to sell or buy in Tampa Bay? In the last few months we’ve been actively talking about the reducing real estate inventory in St Petersburg and all Tampa Bay.  We’re simply trying to carry the message to the consumer.  It is our duty and responsibility as real [...]

Are you free to sell your house whenever? We like when you ask us questions, especially if they are real estate related.  But today we’d like to ask YOU a question.  Should you be allowed to resell your home whenever you want for as much as you want?  What?  I’m not allowed to do that?? [...]

What’s A Lis Pendens and What To Do When Served One day you may have someone knocking on your door asking you to sign off on a Lis Pendens notice.  You probably know the reason why they are at your door.  For whatever reason you’ve been behind on your mortgage payments. You are not alone [...]

Live in St Pete? How’s your home’s Zestimate? So, I’ve just received a Zestimate report from Zillow in my email.  Looks pretty good, if you ask me.  I don’t really agree with the actual estimated value of my home, but that’s probably because I’m so “emotionally attached” to my property and don’t know the “real market [...]

Tampa Bay Real Estate market trend. How does it look? A few days ago we listed a house for sale.  We did our market research and comps analysis to price it right.  Then out of curiosity I went to Zillow.com to check out their graphs.  I seldom refer to Zillow in order to find the [...]

3 major banks lose loan modification incentives and what it means for you! Are you behind on your mortgage payments because your interest rates are too high?   Have you tried the HAMP loan modification program?   If you have, you know how hard it is to actually get approved, get the modification done in your [...]

Have you seen this Google Maps car in your neighborhood? I’ve already written a post about the Google Maps street view vehicles driving through St Pete and Tampa Bay neighborhoods and what it means for you.   But recently I actually had an opportunity to see one for myself.   Driving on 5th Ave N in St Petersburg, [...]

7 Things you should know about short sales and foreclosure in Tampa Bay We meet people in St Petersburg and all over Tampa Bay who have questions about the short sale and foreclosure process.  Here are just 7 things we’d like to address today: 1. How long does the short sale process take? From submission of [...]

GENERAL LENDER REQUIREMENTS FOR SHORT SALE – LOAN MODIFICATION – DEED IN LIEU Seller/Owner docs 1. Borrower(s) Written Authorization to discuss the loan with 3rd parties (not our borrower) and listing agreement if working with an agent 2. Borrower(s) Hardship letter (reason for delinquency) 3. Borrower(s) Financial statement – monthly income vs outflow 4. Borrower(s) [...]

Do you know your options?? As we mentioned in our previous post, Distressed property solutions for Tampa Bay residents, there are many options to be found today for those that find themselves in a tough financial situation with their homes. A short sale can be an excellent solution for homeowners who need to sell, and [...]

Distressed property solutions for Tampa Bay residents • Are you behind on your mortgage? • Do you owe the bank more than the house is worth? • Do you have 1,2 or even 3 mortgages on your property? • Have you tried to obtain funds to bring your loan current without success? • Is your [...]

Was Tony Robbins wrong? Back in August of last year Tony Robbins’ “Economic Warning” videos popped up on YouTube and many people trembled with fear of an upcoming disaster.  Some of my friends ran to the silver and gold dealers and stocked up on precious supplies.  Was Tony wrong in his predictions?  Or is the [...]

How about building a house on the beach? Let’s face it, most people buy homes that are already built, often old homes.  While an old house can carry its’ own charm, history and specific style, why not consider building a house on a vacant lot in Tampa Bay? I have heard many arguments on this [...]

10 reasons to build a SIP (Structural Insulated Panels) home in Tampa Bay. If you dream of building a house in St Petersburg, FL or anywhere else in Tampa Bay, here’s some food for thought before you go on with your project.  In fact, we will be writing a whole separate post on what you [...]

Bank-owned homes are often called REOs. 10 things to consider before buying one. If you are considering buying a bank owned property or what is often called an REO (real estate owned) or a foreclosure in St Petersburg or anywhere in Tampa Bay, here’re 10 things you need to consider before taking action: 1)      REOs are not [...]

Got Bugs? Who You Gonna Call? Doug The Bug! The termite swarming season is approaching and I feel like we need to say a few words on this issue.  If you live in St Petersburg, FL or anywhere in Tampa Bay you’ve probably dealt with termites at some point in your life.  There are dry [...]

You deserve quality listings! Regardless of what site you choose to look for a new house in St Petersburg or anywhere in Tampa Bay, when you are shopping for a house you will most likely be browsing through listings that fall within you budget, or within whatever limits your bank approved you for (sigh). We’d like [...]

Is it a video tour or a virtual open house? Well, it’s both! The idea behind bringing the video tours to our buyers is to make them feel as if they were experiencing their own private open house.  Virtual tours and slide shows just can’t do it, no matter how nice they are.  If you can [...]

Window Listings And QR-Codes.  Are You In The Game? One of the traditional ways Realtors market homes is by placing listings on the window of the office. It is definitely a good way to advertise your home since there are so many people walking by real estate offices every day, especially in high traffic areas. [...]

Owner Financing vs. Lease-To-Own Purchase We meet many buyers and sellers in St Petersburg and Tampa who are confused and don’t know the difference between the two.  For your convenience The HOME Team provides the definitions and a brief explanation of the owner financing and lease-to-own terms, both for buyers and sellers. Owner Financing A home-financing practice in which a [...]

Video In Real Estate, And Why You Must Use It. I consistently hear about the need to use video in order to boost the site’s exposure on the web.  I highly agree as I see our Google ratings get better and video often pop up on the first page.  The HOME Team has a full-time media specialist, creating and editing [...]

SHORT SALES FLOOD IN TAMPA BAY CONTINUES? We’ve all seen the decrease in real estate prices in the last 5 years.  Home prices in Tampa Bay dropped near 50% from where they were at the peak of the market in 2005-2006.  As a result nearly 40% of all home sold in St Petersburg and greater [...]

Google Maps Street View. Are You Using It? You have probably seen a Google vehicle on the streets of your city.  Google has sent out one with a special camera mounted on it to every street of our country and even in places around the world.  All this work just to give us a street [...]

Quick Facts About Florida.  How Will They Affect You? Just read some interesting facts about Florida in Florida Realtor® magazine.  As Realtors® we are continually studying local and state real estate market and statistics.  So, we thought you may be interested to know that in Florida there are: -          1,000 people move to Florida each [...]

Who Is Who In This Real Estate Market? I love observing and interacting with people of different generations. I was born in 1978 and have a hard time determining which generation I belong to: Generation X or Generation Y (The Millennials). I guess I’m stuck somewhere in between. It is also hard for me to be [...]

Team Concept In Real Estate CAN YOU BE A HAPPY LONE RANGER? A team concept is nothing new in business.  In fact it’s been there as long as the commerce existed.  However, for a long time there were several industries where working as a single entrepreneur only one person took all the credit, and did all [...]

Can we do better? Really, can we?  I’m sure you’d agree that Real Estate, like many other industries, is based on relationships.  Over 50% of you will pick your Realtor based on your relative’s or friend’s referral.  Many of you already know of one.  Some 10-15% will look up an agent on the Internet, read [...]

Who pays the commission? Well, let’s talk about it. Traditionally in Florida a seller pays a commission fee to an agent for selling their home.  If a cooperating agent brings a buyer then the commission is split between listing and selling agents.  Once in a while we work with investors and first-time home buyers who are looking [...]

…Is it possible? So how do you go from listing to offer in just 18 days? Well, it’s not always easy but it’s simple.  It all boils down to doing a job and doing it right.  Just like an assembly line worker has a check list of things he must do in order to build [...]

HAFA www.makinghomeaffordable.gov info is used for this post. The Federal Administration’s Making Homes Affordable Program is a critical part of the effort to stabilize the housing market and help struggling homeowners get relief and avoid foreclosure. Making Home Affordable includes opportunities for homeowners to modify or refinance their mortgage to make their payments more affordable. [...]

Is Loan Modification Possible? Let’s talk about HAMP www.makinghomeaffordable.com info used for this article Many homeowners are struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments on time perhaps because their interest rate has increased or they have less income.  A Home Affordable Modification through the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program will provide them with more [...]

Have You heard about HDR images? By now you’ve probably heard about HDR photography.  I’ve seen some beautiful HDR pictures of Tampa Bay and St Petersburg.  According to Wikipedia: “high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest [...]

Virtual Tours – No! Video Tours – Yes! Let’s face it, we are still experiencing a tough real estate market here in Tampa Bay. In St Petersburg, FL and in nearby cities the majority of homes sold are in the $50-300k price range. Homeowners that want to sell their homes and happen to be in [...]

All right, it’s time for some sales stats in St Petersburg, FL! Research is what I truly love doing and today I’d like to share some home sales statistics in St Petersburg, FL. St Pete houses still sell and people still buy! Wow, that’s no revelation, give us stats! Ok, here we go: There are currently [...]

What To Expect From Realtors When Selling Your Home Ok, since I am a real estate agent in St Pete, I will be a little biased here.  But there was a time when I was not a Realtor, and dealt with several different agents in St Petersburg, FL when buying or selling homes.  I was [...]

Interview With A General Contractor, Joe Esposito If you’ve ever undertaken a construction project, you know how hard and time-consuming it can become.  I had a privilege to interview one of the best local General Contractors, Joe Esposito, the owner of J&J Builders and Developers. I’ve personally worked on multiple properties from minor renovations to [...]

Reasons Why You Need To Use A SFR Certified Realtor® Almost everyone in the United States has now heard of short sales.  Those that have gone through a short sale process know that it is time consuming and requires a lot of work with a lender.  Most likely you will have a very thick file [...]

Radio Talk Show, on St Pete Houses, By St Petersburg FL Realtors Many of you know that John Rurkowski, Charles Rutenberg Realty broker has been hosting a radio show now for a few week on 1340AM.  The show is called Today’s Agent and covers multiple real estate topics.  I was fortunate enough to be on the show [...]

Short Sales on St Pete Houses, Loan Modification, Deed In Lieu and more. Interview If you live in St Petersburg, FL and are thinking about short selling your home, or simply want to know more about the short sale process in Tampa Bay - you need to talk to James Tuten.  James is a manager of The Home Team at Charles [...]

If Price Sells, Why Hire A Realtor? 10 Reasons Good question.  Being one of St Petersburg FL Realtors, sometimes I have people ask me about it.  It’s no secret that 75% of a successful home sale is pricing it right.  So why not save on commissions and sell it on your own?  Well, let’s look at what it takes [...]

How Much Is Your House Worth? St Pete Houses, Seminole FL Houses, etc. Let’s talk about non-waterfront homes in St. Petersburg, Seminole, Pinellas Park, Largo and Pinellas County in general.  Living in a waterfront home may be a fine experience but most folks don’t live on the water.  And that’s fine since there are many great homes and neighborhoods [...]

WATERFRONT COMMUNITIES IN St PETE/TAMPA BAY Pinellas County and waterfront homes go together hand in glove.  Every year thousands of people are realizing their dream of living on the Florida coast.  From Tarpon Springs in northern Pinellas County all the way south to St Pete Beach, there is a myriad of waterfront options, with many homes [...]

Welcome to www.HomeTeamTampaBay.com! Our goal is to become your trusted real estate advisors.  We know that whether you are a buyer, a seller or simply browsing – you want information.  That’s what we’ll strive to provide in order to keep you knowledgeable and up to date on what’s going on in St. Petersburg real estate and beyond.  We [...]