February 2008

FLORIDA HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION FILING DEADLINE IS NOW!

Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 12:07am. 108 Views, 0 Comments.

The new law pertaining to the Florida Homestead Exemption increases the exemption $50,000. The law states that every person with legal title to a residential property, can show that this is their primary residence and does not currently have a homestead exemption, is is now entitled to and qualifies for the exemption. The key is that the applicant must be able to show that he or she is a legal Florida resident on January 1st of the the initial application year.

If you are a current resident already receiving a homestead exemption, it is not necessary to re-apply for the additional amount exempted. It will be automatically added to your current exemption. The deadline for a new filing is March 1st of the qualifying year. Normally you can make application…

THE CANADIANS ARE COMING...THE CANADIANS ARE COMING!

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 1:36am. 100 Views, 0 Comments.

I am totally amazed about the amount of Canadians that having been opting in to my web site during the past month or so, and even more amazed about the number scheduling trips to Naples and actually writing contracts to purchase. When I look at Google Analytics for the web site, I’m shocked to see that the site has reversed the former trend of more hits from Europe than Canada.

For years Naples has been a destination for Canadians to rent, more especially in ‘high season’ certainly because of the cold weather at that time of year. They have been coming in droves this year with their Canadian dollar now almost on par with the U.S. dollar, making greater Naples real estate a real bargain for them.

What I find even more interesting, since I always kiddingly…

A SENSE OF URGENCY?

Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 5:16am. 83 Views, 0 Comments.

More and more buyers seem to be popping up out of the woodwork and one wonders what the real motivation is. Is it just that seasonal push or is there something else behind it? 

It may well be a combination of things, not the least of which is the modest rise in the mortgage interest rates, (the average rate for a 30–year fixed-rate mortgage shot up 32 basis points in just the past week, rising from 5.72% to 6.04%.) After trending up the past two weeks, long-term fixed mortgage interest rates are now where they were at the beginning of the year.

It also could be the fact that buyers have finally come to the conclusion that we are indeed at the bottom of the trough of the real estate market and they worry that the exceptional values in the inventory will…

THE SHORT SALE BUZZ

Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 3:18am. 91 Views, 0 Comments.

The buzz words today with real estate buyers coming to the greater Naples area seem to be ‘short sale’ or ‘foreclosure’. Everyone is looking to get in on what is perceived to be a very hot segment of the market, and in actuality, it is.

Having been on both sides of quite a few short sales and foreclosures, I can tell you that it is not easy to bring the transaction to a close. In one instance where I had the short sale listing, it took nearly five months before the lending institution made a decision about whether to take the offer and bring the transaction to a successful conclusion. The interesting thing was that the homeowner was a lawyer and knew who to deal with at her lender.

I suspect that the inherent problem is that it can take that long because…