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Tallahassee, FL Real Estate News

By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  Frustrated homeowners are accumulating, and traditional real estate pricing practices are not making them any happier. It is time to recognize that there is a new way to determine the best asking price for getting a home sold in today’s difficult real estate market. What we have been doing is not working. The real estate graph to the right shows that if we compare the number of homes that have sold, with the number of homes that were put up for sale over the past year, 81% failed! Would you hire a REALTOR® if you knew they were sporting an 81% failure rate? I hope not. And you do not have to. There are new techniques that allow a REALTOR® to determine the best asking price for your home, and this article will show you what to expect from a top real estate company in your area. If thes...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Every month we publish a Tallahassee Housing Supply and Demand Report which can be downloaded from the right sidebar of the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog. This report breaks down the entire Tallahassee housing market by area and price range, in order to show the relative supply of homes for sale in the Tallahassee MLS.Today we’ll look at a comprehensive report of the current supply and demand dynamics occurring in the Tallahassee housing market. As a review for our less frequent readers, most real estate professionals agree that a balanced market has 6 months of supply of housing, with less than 6 months supply being a Sellers’ market, and more than 6 refers to a Buyers’ market.Relative Supply of Homes In TallahasseeThis first real estate graph shows the number of homes for sale in Talla...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Recently, somebody asked me how home sales in Northeast Tallahassee are holding up. I explained that this part of the Tallahassee real estate market accounted for roughly one half of the home sales (49% over the past twelve months) and was performing stronger than the other three quadrants of Leon County. Just a reminder, you can subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Newsletter (free) in the right sidebar of the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog. This monthly newsletter provides analysis of the housing market with charts and graphs to support the finding. The best starting point when analyzing an area or subdivision in the Tallahassee housing market is to look at current supply and demand of homes. Supply And Demand For Northeast Tallahassee Real Estate The real estate chart above shows t...
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By Captain Wayne - Rowlett Real Estate School, Rowlett Real Estate School / Owner and Instructor
(Rowlett Real Estate School)
Captain Wayne Rowlett invites you to the finest Florida Real Estate School.   We are a fully accredited Florida Real Estate School offering Florida Real Estate Courses online, including Continuing Ed, Pre and Post Sales and Pre and Post Brokers. Visit our website at www.RowlettRealEstateSchool.com for our online Real Estate Courses and classroom schedule, or Click on the course links below. For a full line up of our Florida real estate courses online, go to  http://www.rowlettcareerschool.com/fl-florida.htm. Instructors are available 7 days a week to help you. The www.RowlettRealEstateSchool  is a the finest Florida real estate school in the State.  The Rowlett Real Estate School offers live Classroom Real Estate Courses in Panama City Florida as well as a full line up of Florida onlin...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  One of my agents relayed a story to me yesterday that I felt would make for a great post on the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog. He told me that he is helping a buyer buy a short sale in Tallahassee, and he shared with me the conversation  he had with the listing agent. The listing agent told him something like “get an offer in and I’ll make sure it is first in line, every other offer will be a backup.” This comment sent all my alarms to the full scream mode, and I sat down with my agent and had a long discussion about the process of buying a short sale. Most Real Estate Agents Don’t Understand The Short Sale Process The first thing I told him was the agent in question probably had limited experience with short sales. If you truly understand how banks work a short sale (this process is o...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  Two unrelated events occurred yesterday that really got me thinking about all of the issues and events that affect the Tallahassee real estate market. First was an email from a Tallahassee homeowner who needed advice on her home. She is one of the victims of high unemployment, pay cuts, and lost jobs that have occurred in our area due to the struggling economy. The one chord that really struck with me was when she pointed out that she had worked for the State for 20 years yet had to take a cut in pay to remain employed. This is not the first time that I have seen this occur, and my heart goes out to her. The second and totally unrelated event was an article that was published on the Opinion Page yesterday in the Tallahassee Democrat. Mr. Erwin Jackson has raised a question of the lega...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Every so often, I like to delve into my web site analytics package to see how many people have been visiting our Real Estate Blog and from where these people are coming. While the top origination points are not so surprising, I am always amazed that many of our visitors come from all over the world. It really underscores the importance of the global nature of real estate. The map above shows that visits to the Tallahassee real estate blog have come from all around the world, with the countries colored in various shades of green leading the field in the number of visits they have made to Tallahassee (on the web of course). Real Estate Marketing Has Moved To The Internet With over 85% of all home buyers starting their search for homes on the internet, it is a wonder that some real estate ...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  Forty is on my mind today. Yesterday, we celebrated the 40th birthday of my “little” brother Danny, and this month we celebrate the fact that 40 tough months of real estate is most likely behind us. Today, we begin to make the climb up from the bottom of the worst housing market since the Great Depression. Incentives are ripe for home buyers, with federal income tax dollars, low interest rates, and some great buys in the housing market. Sometimes you have to look backwards to see where you are going. Understanding the cyclical nature of the real estate market gives us a long-term perspective on what we should be expecting. REMINDER: The 16th Edition of the Tallahassee Real Estate Newsletter goes out today to subscribers. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s free and you can do so in th...
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By Carol Palacios
(Century 21 Manausa & Associates)
Often times I deal with sellers who know of others that are going through the short sale or foreclosure process. My clients find themselves taking advice from those other short sellers and start to formulate ideas or conditions to their own short sale approval. For example, I went on listing appointment to meet with a short sale candidate. The sellers had been attempting to negotiate a loan modification for the last 8 months with Citi Mortgage. The terms of their loan had been modified without any written documentation for them to sign off on or to inform them of the change. When they received the bill they paid it using their retirement funds and later contacted the mortgage company to ask that they send them written confirmation of the modification for their records. Citi Mortgage dec...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  A friend of mine asked me the other day “what’s the real deal in Southwood?” I responded “The real deal?” He said he heard all kinds of rumors about what is going on in Southwood, that taxes are up and values are down. I told him that I would do a thorough analysis of the real estate market in Southwood, as I knew it would make great material for the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog. So today we’ll take an analytical tour of the supply and demand of homes in the Southwood neighborhood. This post is packed full of information, including four (4) color graphs as well as two (2) important lists of homes. Make sure that you click the continuation link below, where it says  "[click to see market graphs and list of homes in Southwood]" There is a list of the homes that are currently on the mark...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  Yesterday, I received a great comment by a Destin, FL REALTOR® who pointed out that the shadow inventory of homes has many more components than just the defaulted mortgage pool. His example was of homes in a new neighborhood, developed in 2005, where all of the home owners are now upside-down on their mortgages. As he explained in his comment on the Tallahassee real estate blog, Jim noted Until that whole neighborhood turns over, it is going to have downward pricing pressure. We are talking about hundred of homes within a small radius. So what this means, in a nutshell, is many homeowners in these types of neighborhoods become part of the growing shadow inventory because even though they might want to move, they are not in a position to sell their home. Another Example Of The Shadow I...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
The Tallahassee area logged 163 single-family existing-home sales in October, down 5 percent over a year ago which is not as good as many other areas in Florida that seem to show gains in every market measured. Of course, those measurements are from REALTOR® MLS reports, which typically do not show much more than 1/2 t o 2/3rds of the entire market activity. The median price for those local sales gained 1.2 percent to $174,000 from $172,000 in October 2008. Fort Walton Beach was the only other market in October to see prices rise, up 1 percent from a year ago. Graph Of Home Prices In Tallahassee, Florida The real estate graph above shows that the average price continues to drop, while the median price has actually been recovering. Unfortunately, the graph does not depict appreciation or...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
We have been keeping an eye on home foreclosures in Tallahassee for several years now and have warned that a log-jam of homes has been accumulating in the shadow inventory. In today’s foreclosure update, we’ll look at the location trend of homes that are being added to the “distressed properties” list in the Tallahassee real estate market. The foreclosure process begins with a lis pendens filing, so we make sure that we track not only the final foreclosure sale, but also the monthly lis pendens filings in Tallahassee. When we construct a real estate graph of these two important concerns, we find the following picture of foreclosures in Tallahassee. In the graph above, we see that every month there are hundreds of lis pendens filed in Tallahassee, yet the number of foreclosures rarely re...
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By Carol Palacios
(Century 21 Manausa & Associates)
Joe Manausa | Century 21 First Realty | 850.523.6118 2398 Continental Ave, Tallahassee, FL 2BR/2.5BA Single Family House offered at $112,500 Year Built 1982 Sq Footage 1,280 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 2 full, 1 partial Floors 2 Parking None Lot Size Unspecified HOA/Maint $0 per month DESCRIPTION You can enjoy all the benefits of townhome living with out sacrificing yard space, because this townhouse sits on a very generous size lot. The fenced back yard is big enough to grow a garden, put up a swing set for your little one(s) or let your dog run around outside. It doesn't end there other features include 4 parking spaces, oversized bedrooms with their own bathrooms. Master has a sliding glass door that leads to a big balcony where you can watch the sun rise & set. New carpet throughout, newe...
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By Carol Palacios
(Century 21 Manausa & Associates)
Joe Manausa | Century 21 First Realty | 850.523.6118 8208 Little Terry Circle, Tallahassee, FL 2BR/2BA Single Family House offered at $134,900 Year Built 1991 Sq Footage 1,228 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 2 full, 0 partial Floors 1 Parking 1 Car garage Lot Size .35 acres HOA/Maint $0 per month DESCRIPTION Vacant - show anytime. Home is move in ready. New vinyl floor in kitchen & utility room. New ceramic tile in hall bath. Range & diswasher replaced in 07, refrigerator 02, & range hood in 08. Large fenced back yard. Cartus relocation. Must use Cartus contract Seller willing pay first 6 months mortgage payments with a full price offer. see additional photos below PROPERTY FEATURES - Central A/C - Central heat - Fireplace - Living room - Dishwasher - Refrigerator - Stove/Oven - Yard ADDITIONAL P...
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By Carol Palacios
(Century 21 Manausa & Associates)
Wondering how to write an effective and compelling hardship letter? A hardship letter is your opportunity to appeal to the mortgage company to give you another chance. This should NOT be used to complain about what they have or have not done to make your situation worse. This letter must be honest and represent the facts clearly. If you are pursuing a short sale, the goal is to prove to them that the situation that caused you to fall behind is not temporary and you are not in a position to continue making your payments. However, if you are applying for a loan modification, your hardship letter must prove just the opposite; the situation that caused you to fall behind on your payments was temporary and you are now in the position to make payments and maintain them up to date. You must al...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) last week announced that the maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages originated in 2010 will remain unchanged from the list provided in 2009. The maximum loan limits for Tallahassee and all other areas in the United States can by found in a download-able format in the right sidebar of the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, or by clicking this link to the list of FNMA loan limits by county. So why does it matter what the FHFA says about loan limits? Because the Federal Housing Finance Agency regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. These government-sponsored enterprises provide more than $6.3 trillion in funding for the U.S. mortgage markets and financial institutions. The ability of our market to recover and get pe...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
If you have been following the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog over the past few weeks, you know that we have sporadically reviewed some neighborhoods in Tallahassee, and lately have done the first three units in Killearn Lakes Plantation. Today we’ll take a final look at Killearn Lakes, with a review of its 4th unit of homes. Killearn Lakes Unit 4 is also know as “Grandview” and features homes on lots that range from 1 to 10 acres. As you will see from the following real estate graphs and analysis, home values have held much more stable in this neighborhood than many others in the Tallahassee real estate market. Average Home Prices In Killearn Lakes Unit 4 The first thing that I noticed when I looked at the existing home sales in Grandview was that the trends were not as seamless as Talla...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
All across America this morning, people will be grabbing their morning paper (online most likely) and reading an article that was circulated through the Associated Press about the new home construction industry. As a matter of fact, the article features a picture of a home being built in Tallahassee (and that is how this feed caught my attention). Unfortunately, the article is grossly misleading. The authors of this article apparently do not consider “supply and demand” in real estate to be a factor that home builders should consider when deciding what to do. In the real estate equation, the supply side is filled by: New home builders building homes Existing home owners selling their home Banks and asset managers liquidating their inventory On the other side of the real estate equation...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  I have heard the rumors, have you? Tiger Woods joins the Tallahassee Real Estate Team At CENTURY 21 First Realty? It’s not enough to hear the rumors, but do we have photographic evidence as well? Of course, the picture of Tiger Woods could just be the one where he is wearing the victor’s Gold Jacket after winning the Australian Masters golf tournament this past weekend, but who knows…. Speaking of golf tournaments, I was fortunate to play in a charity golf tournament at Golden Eagle on Monday. The tournament was created to support Christmas Connection and our Winning CENTURY 21 team was sponsored by Stan Kupiszewski. Christmas Connection Serves Basic Needs Of Families This is the time of year when many great charitable groups are raising money to help people who are down on their luck...
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