Selling and Buying tips

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 [...]

Or, welcome to the seller’s market. I couldn’t believe my eyes!  I sat down in front of my laptop blinking in awe at the numbers.  39!  Yes, there are only 39 homes (single family houses, as of 4/4/13) for sale in St Petersburg in the range between $275k and $325k.  This is a sweet spot for many [...]

Relocating can be exciting and also exhilarating.  Often you will have accumulated a lot of personal items and if you have a family, well… the amount of your treasured possessions triples or quadruples.  Your mind is restless, you need to call movers, learn about the area you are moving to and find that leasing agent [...]

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 The Most Important One Is Marketing (watch video below) Location, location… location?  Wait a minute? Really?  Yes, you’ve heard it many times, but, in my opinion, it’s an overrated statement and often not true for several reasons.  If the buyer is an investor they care more about their rate of return or net profit rather [...]

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 [...]

So Breath Normally, St Petersburg Resident, You Are Good For This Year! If the Mortgage Debt Relief Act would not have been renewed for 2013, it could have created a serious damper on the real estate market recovery and growth this year.  Fortunately for many home owners planning on going through a short sale this [...]

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 [...]

Tuten’s Timely Tips for Sellers during the Holidays During the holiday season you will probably have some time off from the regular routine.  Use some of this ”free” time to take care of the little things that make a big difference in your home presentation. 1.   Curb Appeal – during the winter the grass may [...]

Tuten’s Timely Tips for Home Buyers in 2013 As you step into the arena of the New Home Search in St Petersburg or anywhere in Tampa Bay, you need to be prepared and that requires having a plan.  Consider the following: 1.  Develop a “Wish List”.  These are the “must haves” and the “would really [...]

Double Waterfront Lot In St Petersburg Once in a very rare while an opportunity presents itself.  The kind of opportunity that makes you smile and nod while saying to yourself: yes, this is a good deal! Living on the water in Tampa Bay is a dream of many and a reality for some.  A lifestyle [...]

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 [...]

7 Reasons for Unreturned Realtor Calls Today I met a client from Georgia (state) and she decided to hire me as a buyer’s agent.  She’s relocating from Atlanta to Tampa Bay, and the funny thing is she’s a Realtor herself.  She was trying to arrange showings on her own calling listing agents and not getting [...]

Foreclosure Buying Process  Foreclosure is a process that allows a lender to recover the amount owed on a defaulted loan by selling or repossessing the property securing the loan.  Below are some tips for purchasing a foreclosure in St Petersburg or anywhere in Tampa Bay. Get an estimate of what you can afford, which enables [...]

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 [...]

And What It Means For You Are you looking for a home in Snell Isle?  It’s a large community and you may find homes here from $200k’s to properties with a tag of several $ million.  That’s why so many people love it. It’s an area that accommodates various lifestyles and they all fit together [...]

And Why It’s More About You Rather Than Your House There is a slew of information on the web regarding how to get your house ready for a sale.  You may have read such blog posts with headlines like these: Five ways to improve curb appeal, three interior paint colors that sell most homes, fourteen [...]

And is it a Buyer’s or Seller’s market? 6,358 – Number of homes listed for sale in Pinellas County as of today.  Same time last year we had about twice as many homes for sale on our market.  What is going on?  Inventory is rapidly depleting, banks are strongly controlling the release of new REOs [...]

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 [...]

Before You Build a Pool By Katherine McKenzie, guest writer/blogger(www.newhomesource.com) Maybe it’s the perfect blue of the Florida sky, or the pool parties your new St Petersburg neighbors keep inviting you to—but somewhere along the line almost everyone in this climate gets hit with the urge to build a pool. Pools in St Petersburg are [...]

Google Earth – a Helper or a Bummer? My wife and I love to travel the world.  Well, I suppose I should say” loved” as most of our world travel happened prior to the arrival of our beautiful daughter who’s now 5.  But even at her young age she’s now been 3 times across the [...]

Help!  I need to sell my home in St Petersburg! Some say the real estate market in Tampa Bay is improving.  While it may be so in some areas of St Petersburg and other cities of Pinellas, it is still a challenging time to sell your home.  We talk to sellers daily and all of them have [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Tips on Curb Appeal for St Petersburg and Tampa Bay residents By Rick Orr - agronomist, blogger Curb Appeal? Try these ideas to get started making your house inviting to potential buyers. Even Weeds look Good Mowed Mowing can really change the appearance of the home. And mowing as high as the mower will go is best. The [...]

But don’t know where to begin? Beautiful, ugly, cute, nice, dump, got curb appeal, elegant, so-so, starter home, total rehab, is this a joke?, fixer-upper.  Buyers and sellers use these terms to describe a house – yes, often your house.   Once you bought your home, your mind probably drifted to other things besides real [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

  If you live in Tampa Bay here are 5 things you should know about home staging. If you’re selling a home in St Petersburg or anywhere in Tampa Bay and it’s been listed by a trusted real estate professional you might be left wondering, “What else can I do to help this house sell?”  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Why Listings Expire in St. Pete, Tampa And Anywhere Some listings don’t sell during the listing period for a variety of reasons, including: 1)     market conditions (oversupply of homes available for sale); 2)     property condition; 3)     listing period too short; 4)     uncooperative owner or tenant; 5)     overpriced; or 6)     poor marketing effort. Except for the [...]

7 Guidelines For The First-time Home Buyers According to a National Association of Realtors survey conducted in 2006 and 2007 the average first time home buyer’s age is 31 years.  This average is pointing towards Gen X, but in our experience we also have educated Gen Y’ers (or Millennials) on first-time home buying process.  Even people that [...]

How’s Your Curb Appeal? Everyone knows how important curb appeal is when it comes down to selling or buying a house.  If you are a seller you want your home to have a curb appeal to attract buyers and if you are a buyer you are naturally drawn to a house that simply stands out, [...]

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 [...]

IS YOUR REALTOR BRINGING ON A PHOTO DISASTER? We’ve been working with home sellers and buyers for a long time.  Yet, it still amazes me sometimes to see how agents advertise listings.  I also can’t, in the right mind, understand why the home sellers list their homes with the agents offering this type of marketing.  PHOTO TAKING MISTAKES [...]

Do You Live In Tampa Bay? Find Out What Your Home Is Worth Now! When selling or buying a home – market information is a key!  The HOME Team of Charles Rutenberg Realty would like to provide this information to you absolutely free.  Market Snapshot is a unique tool that will not only show you [...]