We thought it would never come but I think we might finally be starting to see the bottom of the market in the Riverview and Brandon areas of Florida!  In a recent four week and 5 offer jaunt with a pair of wonderful (and wonderfully partient ) first time home buyers I could not believe we faced such brutal competition.  My buyers had done everything right- they had already been fully approved for a house through a major bank- all we needed was the house.  We put an offer on the first house only to find out after constant efforts to get in touch with the agent for 5 days that the house had a contract on it already for several weeks.  She was on vacation in Australia and evidently the person she left to handle her business did not even know what was going on with her business and her office did not either!!  How professional is that??

Our second offer was on a short sale, but wouldn't you know it the agent would not let the seller sign it - he just wanted to submit it to the bank unsigned- another person came along three days later with a higher offer!

Offer three was a duplicate of offer 2- same agent - different house-same outcome!

Offer four was an REO on a bid process that was not accepted.

Offer 5?  Well offer five was the gem! A brand new house still being built in which we got a price reduction , 6% in closing costs, upgrades, and a buydown to a fixed interest rate of 5.25%.

So, it took us a while but we are finally locked into a contract and I have learned a valuable lesson with buyers in the lower price ranges of this market- FIND A BUILDER HOME!  I am sold, no hassles, instant answers, instant contracts, satisfied buyers.  What more can we ask for??  Mission complete- almost!

Yes , you can buy a home and a lot more of one with this great builder deal I discovered last night while showing homes in Riverview Florida.  I was only looking for a home priced around $13,000 due to the buyers not wanting to have a larger mortgage payment, and so had not considered this builder's homes that were priced at $150,000 and above.  An agent called me from seeing my drive by her on the road and told me that they had a great deal for a 5.25% FIXED interest rate on their inventory closing before November.  We went and looked and my buyers were able to get a $175,000 house for about the same payment that the $130,000 house was going to cost them. And to top it off, it is brand new with upgrades and better yet no waiting for a short sale answer or being outbid on REO's!!

 

This builder still has a few inventory left in a nice small neighborhood with no CDD fees, so if you were thinking about buying a home there is still time to do the Niemiah program for no downpayment and the builder also pays 6% in closing costs (pretty much all of it)

The downpayment assistance programs go away October 1.  After that it will have to be an FHA 3% down loan or a conventional loan with a larger amount down, so now is the absolutely best time to buy!!

 

Give me a call and i will let you in on all the specifics!

Here in Hillsborough County Florida we are seeing the boom of more and more new contruction going up everyday, especially townhomes!  We are also experienceing an enormous amount of new construction inventory which sometimes makes it difficult for the resale homes to compete.  The builder are now pulling out all the stops, $50,000-$60,000 price reductions, free cars or free one year mortgage payments are not uncommon.

This does give buyers many choices and great deals to pick from.  Our team keeps track of all the best deals so that when we work with buyers we can find them the absolute best deal at the best price.  Of course with all the building this gets very time consuming.  Do any agents have an idea on how to make this chore more organized?

As the market has slowed many people are questioning wether to sell or buy right now.  My take on this?  This is a market of opportunity!! Opportunity for first time buyers to buy a home with still low interest rates and decent home pricing.  Opportunity for move up buyers to get their new home at a lower interst rate and a lower home price.  opportunity for sellers to be creative and make their homes really shine for potential buyers.  Opportunity for investors to buy and rent to the ever increasing rental market.  Opportunity for real estate agents that take their profession seriously to really shine in their markets! As far as I can see the current market creates great opportunity for all!