The President did sign this into law on Friday.  Should be great for the real estate business.  But not that great for the overall debt that America continues to bury itself in. Chris did a great job of explaining the details and changes of this extension.

The $8000 tax credit extension has passed the U.S. House & Senate almost unanimously and is headed to the President's desk for a signature. 

 

Now the tax credit will be good for contracts signed no later than April 30, 2010 and closing no later than June 30, 2010.  Additionally existing homeowners who have lived in a principal residence for 5 consecutive years out of the last 8 years - these will get a maximum $6500 tax credit.   

There are some additional caps on income and some supposedly new anti-fraud measures (ha ha) in place as well.

You can read the full details of this extension at NAR's website.

This is great news for the real estate industry. Not sure how great it is for the national debt though. But I'd rather see the money going to the middle class than to Wall Street zillionaires.

This is an interesting little cartoon. Supposedly it was made way back in 1948 when the United States was actually afraid of socialism and communism. My how much things have changed in this country. Capitalism has now become a dirty word synonymous with greed and the "evil rich". Some people forget that capitalists like Henry Ford, Orville & Wilbur Wright, Thomas Edison, Roy Kroc, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and thousands of other business owners big and small have created fantastic inventions and millions of jobs for everyone else. If you live in Central Florida, think of what companies like Darden Restaurants, Del Air, Lockheed Martin, Burnham, Triple A, and Rosen Hotels have done for our community. If it wasn't for business owners, the standard of living of just about everyone in the United States and the entire western world wouldn't be a whole lot different than it was back in the 1800's.

October was another strong month for home sales.  Our office sold 32 properties last month and many more are pending for November. Banks love to dump their REO and short sale inventory during the 4th quarter so that it won't be on their books for the new year.  Look at some of these great Central Florida home deals that closed in October 2009.  

            

     Fisher Drive                                  Morning Glory Lane                     Pelican Lane

- Fisher Drive, Deltona, FL 32725.  This 3 bed/2 bath/2-car garage home was a true investor special.  Bank owned REO needing a bunch of work but what do you expect for this sort of price.  It sold for the super cheap price of just $46,000 after just 5 days on the market. 

- 1st Avenue, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714.  3 bed/1 bath/1-car garage block home.  Located in the coveted Lake Brantley school district in Seminole County.  House was a true handyman special, but the bank REO department wanted it sold.  Seller let this one go for the low low price of just $27,500.

- Morningside Drive, Orlando, FL 32806.  Big 4 bed/3.5 bath pool home.  Just steps from Lake Lancaster near Delaney Park in downtown Orlando.  Owner was motivated and this was priced to sell.  After only 6 weeks on the market it sold for $270,000.

- Morning Glory Lane, Kissimmee, FL 34747.  This was a fabulous short sale home in Celebration Florida. 4 bed/2.5 bath/2-car garage with spacious kitchen and modern features.  At the top of the market this home sold for over $500K but we negotiated a short sale with the bank at just $340,000.  We still have one more Celebration short sale home available.  Call for details.

- Pelican Lane, Orlando, FL 32803. 3 bed/2 bath block home near downtown Orlando.  Bank owned REO and a great wholesale deal.  This Audubon Park home sold for just $105,000.

Our office has a constant stream of new bank owned REOs, foreclosures, short sales, and other investor specials.  Make sure to sign up for our weekly hot property email list.

Before you let your Florida real estate license go inactive, make sure to check out our real estate referral brokerage Sand Dollar Referrals LLC.  We have 2 plans - a "hands off" referral plan and a "hands on" active plan for sales associates that want to sell real estate and keep their license active, but can't afford your local ORRA Realtor dues. 

What we provide to our referral associates:

• Professional help and advice when you need it.
• Centrally located Altamonte Springs office. Free use of our conference room and on staff notary.
• Free attendance to all monthly sales meetings of Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc.
• Earn additional income from our affiliations with local title company Brokers Title and the sale of home warranties.
• Easy exit agreement. As long as your expenses and splits are paid in full to us, you can give us 7 days notice to cancel the agreement.
• Free access to all member MLS's when you come to our office and work directly with one of our Realtors.
• Errors & Omissions insurance paid by the brokerage to cover all your transactions.
• If you decide that you want to join the local Realtor association and obtain MLS access for yourself, you can switch your license over to our Realtor-brokerage, Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc., at anytime (subject to broker approval).

What we require of you:

• You must have a valid and current Florida real estate license (sales associate or broker associate).
• You must pay your DBPR licensing fees and take the continuing education required by law.
• You must register your potential customer leads and property deals with us in writing..
• But other than that we do not require much else from you. No quotas of any kind. No requirement to list or run all your personal sales through our firm. For the Hands Off Plan just send us your leads, and let us do the work. For the Hands On Plan just work with the broker to sell some properties. Either way when the deal closes, you get paid. How easy is that?

For more details on our commission splits just click over to our website Sand Dollar Referrals LLC .  If you are interested in a confidential interview, feel free to contact me anytime.

Over the years, I've listed a few houses that at least some people considered "haunted." Though I've tried and tried, I've never actually been able to see or feel a ghost in any of these places.

A few years ago, I listed a big 5000 square foot home that sat back a couple hundred feet off the road.  The owner was having major renovations done to the home and temporarily moved out of it.  I was helping him with overseeing some of the repair work while he was away. 

Several of the workers there repeatedly told me that they heard noises, that they heard large crashing sounds in the garage on occasion but nothing had fallen, that doors that they closed at night were wide open the next morning.  So I did a little investigation myself.  One Friday night after everyone left, I went to the home all by myself.  Kind of creepy actually.  I called out to the "spirits" to show themselves.  Went so far as to actually close every interior door in the house.  Nothing ever appeared to me.  I came back to the house on Sunday afternoon and low and behold all the doors were still closed.  I mentioned all this to the home's owner and he just said that the workers were crazy because he had never seen anything.  What a disappointment.

Earlier this spring, I listed a bank REO home.  The home was all boarded up, so some of the rooms were pitch black.  The bank required me to do a BPO which means I have to take photos of every room.  One photo in particular in an upstairs bedroom showed an "orb" in it. You can see that photo below - the "orb is the white circle in the center over the baseboard.  Not sure what that thing is.  Some people say they are ghosts.  Anyway, I came back to inspect the house a few days later and that board nailed to that window had fallen off and was laying on the ground.  Now granted these boards were installed by the previous Realtor nearly 3 months earlier and there were 15 other boarded windows in the house and none of them ever fell down during the entire time that I had this house listed.  Weird. Luckily that house sold.

   

My final and weirdest experience was on a rental home that I owned. The home was in foreclosure and filled with trash when I bought it.  The lady that sold it to me said that the house was "cursed" and that after 2 years of owning it she was so glad to get rid of it because the house had cold spots in it and made noises at night.  Supposedly it "caused the break up of her marriage" and her husband took the kids and went to Miami.  She sold the house to me with several dumpsters full of trash left in it.  The night after I bought the house, I wanted to go and check out this supposed "curse."  I will admit that I did hear a bunch of noises when I was over there.  It sounded like the whole house was moving.   But it wasn't from ghosts.  It was from a rat infestation.  4 dumpster loads of trash later, the house was empty.  Still took me a few weeks to kill off a dozen or so huge black rats.  I ended up selling that house about a year ago.  Nobody that ever rented from me mentioned ghosts or curses, but I did have one more incidence of rodents getting into the house.  Who knows for sure?

I'd love to hear other people's "haunted house" experiences.  Have a happy and safe Halloween!

 

Due to the combined efforts of Central Florida Realty Investors and Orlando Regional Realtor Association, this proposed rental ordinance and tax was defeated 4-1.  Several members of both organizations spoke out at the hearing and gave the city commission some alternatives to creating yet another level of bureaucracy. 

This is a great victory for private property rights in Central Florida. 

This 60 Minutes video will really get your blood boiling. Just imagine how our wonderful federal government will handle Nationalized health care.

While I agree that some major changes need to happen in the health care industry, I don't think government run insurance is the answer. These videos simply re-confirm what many of us have already thought. The President thinks he can pay for his health care plan by rooting out all this fraud. Does he truly believe that a giant government bureaucracy can clean up all this fraud? Seriously, who is he kidding?


Part 1:



Part 2:

The City of Casselberry Florida has a new rental regulation and tax on their horizon.  The City of Casselberry is planning on increasing revenue by a "very conservative ... $22,000" by tacking on yet another layer of fees and regulations onto the back of rental property owners most of whom are already strapped financially.

Proposed resolution 09-2088 would force owners of rental properties   including single-family homes, condos, mobile homes, and apartment buildings to pay an additional tax each and every year for every unit they own in the city limits of Casselberry.  Additionally the property owner would be required to provide their contact information to city hall so that code enforcement could more easily get a hold of them in case of a violation.

Now granted, the tax collector can easily get a hold of property owners each and every November when the property taxes come due.  And the Seminole County Property Appraiser website already has maintained on a list of owners and addresses for every parcel within the county.  But this isn't good enough.  The solution is to tighten the noose around rental owners yet again and end up forcing more of them into foreclosure or bankruptcy in a tough economy.

The 1st hearing on this proposed rental regulation ordinance is this Monday, October 26, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. at the Casselberry city commission chambers. 

You can read the entire proposed ordinance here.

An interesting debate is going on in Washington.  The National Association of Realtors is doing everything it can to get the $8000 tax credit extended beyond the November 30, 2009 deadline. 

  

However, the White House is still undecided.  In a recent CNN article, Shaun Donavon, the Secretary of HUD says the statistics aren't in just yet to show whether this tax credit has spurred the economy. 

Apparently the IRS is screaming all types of fraud saying that a significant portion of the tax payers filing for the tax credit may have done so fraudulently.  Over 107,000 questionable files have been opened by the IRS according to Fox News.  To me that's not surprising.  Look at all the fraud and "bonuses" that have been paid out as a result of the TARP money in Fall 2008.  Everytime the government creates some new handout or incentive there is always lots of fraud that happens.

Personally I still have mixed emotions on extending the deadline on the tax credit.  So I haven't contacted my Congressman either way. Seems like nearly 40% of the buyers in my market are paying cash. So while the tax credit has had some impact, it probably hasn't been as much as they are hyping it up to be. However at the same time I know the tax credit has knocked some buyers off the fence which is a good thing.

It will be interesting to see what happens in December if they don't extend the deadline.  If you are planning on taking advantage of this, you better get a contract signed quickly because the time is running out fast.

My bet is that like the Cash For Clunkers program, Washington will allow this program to end and not revive or extend it. But who knows for sure.