My wife and I just wanted say thank you again for helping us get our home.  As you know this was our first home buying experience and we are very happy that we stumbled upon you as our agent.  We were very impressed with your level of knowledge, and very thankful for your patience.  You  took the time to explain to us everything that we had questions about and in a way that wasn’t intimidating or confusing.  I’m sure you are probably use to dealing with more seasoned buyers, but as a first time home buyer we couldn’t have asked for anything more. Thanks and hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to work with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Chris

Teamwork is what makes for successful real estate transactions. This one, as most do, involved the securing of a loan. My client, the home buyer, was using a VA (Veterans Administration) certificate and using a VA insured loan to make the purchase of his and his wife’s first home. They had already begun discussions with an online broker that specializes in VA mortgages and wanted to use his services. I cautioned them against using a broker that does not come highly recommended from someone in the business, or at least from someone who has done business with that individual or company. But the relationship was already there and they decided to give him the biz.

Once we began negotiating with the sellers’ agent, I asked the online broker if he could provide a loan commitment in the time frame requested by the sellers. “No problem” was the answer we received.  Long story short: No loan commitment was ever obtained from this broker. Then, a week before closing we get the message that “we’ve got a 50/50 shot at meeting our closing date”.

Say what? That was all I needed to hear to tell my clients that they needed to move quickly to find a lender that could close this loan. They heeded my advice, found a local lender with a history of servicing VA buyers, and we closed on time. The local lender got the deal done in one week (5 biz days). The sellers were obviously happy as they were also purchasing a new home on the same day.

Teamwork makes for seamless, stress-free transactions. One broken link in the team can, and does, lead to disaster. Realtors, home inspectors, pest inspectors, lenders, title companies, handymen, and others, work together to insure that what buyer and seller agree to, is what happens.

In other news: Home sales are up. Inventory is trending down. Interest rates are trending up. Buyer traffic is up!

Have a question about Tampa real estate? Call or e-mail.

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The important thing to remember here, as a home buyer, is to not rely on the seller’s tax amount as an indication of what you’ll be paying. Property taxes are based on an assessed value, and that new assessed value will be based on the purchase price of the property.

This is especially true when purchasing from a seller that has owned a homesteaded property for many years. That seller was most likely protected from big tax increases for those many years. And when the property changes hands that protection is wiped away, and the taxable value will be brought in line with the current market.

The disclosure is conveniently placed in all Florida Association of Realtor purchase contracts and reads:

BUYER SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE SELLER’S CURRENT PROPERTY TAXES AS THE AMOUNT OF PROPERTY TAXES THAT THE BUYER MAY BE OBLIGATED TO PAY IN THE YEAR SUBSEQUENT TO PURCHASE. A CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP OR PROPERTY IMPROVEMENTS TRIGGERS REASSESSMENTS OF THE PROPERTY THAT COULD RESULT IN HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CONCERNING VALUATION, CONTACT THE COUNTY PROPERTY APPRAISER’S OFFICE FOR INFORMATION.

So how does the Tampa home buyer estimate property taxes? The easiest way is to visit the property appraiser’s website and use the tax estimator. Using the purchase price and whether or not the property will be homesteaded, one can get a fairly accurate range of the property taxes after reassessment.

Tampa Property Tax Estimator

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From my perspective, buyer traffic is up in most areas. Showings on our listings are up, and inquiries from buyers are also much higher recently. However, with the explosion in buyer interest over the last few months, I would have expected the number of pending listings to have taken a bigger jump by now. The pent up demand is out there, but many buyers are still quite wary, while others fail to get qualified for financing. FHA loans have become quite popular, with the loan down payment (3%) requirement.

What about the trend for foreclosures? I reported on them last month and promised an update. In April there were 1684 Lis Pendens filings in Hillsborough County. I just did a search for number of Lis Pendens filed in the month of May and the results show “Maximum limit of 2000 records has been exceeded, please change the above criteria” Uh-Oh… In splitting the month up, I find that 2033 Lis Pendens were filed in Hillsborough County during the month of May, surpassing February’s high of 1734. There are still many troubled loans out there and the ARM resets will continue to make many of these new loan payments un-affordable. Refinancing is usually not an option, since the loan balance is likely more than the property is worth, although there may be options for some homeowners facing foreclosure.

Have a question about Tampa real estate? Considering a sale? A purchase? Give us a call:

Data used is from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS, all agents, brokers included, and the Hillsborough County Public Records.

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1. 21st floor of Skypoint (north side of bldg)
2. 3rd floor at Victory Lofts (Channel District), but this one is 1241sqft
3. 25th floor of Skypoint, 664sqft on the south side (with the views)

On the low end is an 820sqft unit at Grand Central on Kennedy at $159k, but this is a short sale listing (phantom list price) so time will only tell if this price would be approved. But you can get a unit at The Place at Channelside for $159.9k. And on the high end of the pricing spectrum are 3 units at Grand Central at Kennedy. Priced in the mid $400s, these 1127sqft units are in the west building, with the floor to ceiling glass walls providing views of downtown and southward.

As for what’s sold in 2008, The chart shows that the median sale price is around $200k, or about $60k lower than the median list price currently. There have only been 4 sales of 1/1s YTD of over $250k. Of the 89 1/1s for sale, 52 of them are priced at or above $250k. So it’s clear to see that the current demand is at the lower end.

Data used is from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS and does not include private, non-brokered sales or condos for sale.

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A Lis Pendens is a notice of some legal action against the property owner. These are recorded with the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court, and the overwhelming majority of these notices relates to a foreclosure on a mortgage. The typical language reads:

You are notified of the institution of this action by Plaintiff against you seeking to foreclose a mortgage encumbering the following real property in Hillsborough County, Florida:…

And with the decline in property values, the slowing economy, and the many risky mortgages resetting to higher interest rates (and much higher payments), foreclosures have certainly been on the rise. Starting in September of 2007, there was a steep rise in the number of Lis Pendens filings. But in recent months, the number of filings has seemed to stabilize, at a high rate. So what will the coming months bring? Will we begin to see a decline in the number of foreclosure filings? I’ll take another look next month and update the chart.

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