Orlando Real Estate Foreclosures and Short Sales - 05/28/10 04:06 PM
I thought I would share some of the trends and practices I am seeing in Orlando real estate. Specifically, I wanted to point out some of the challenges in purchasing and closing bank owned and short sales in our market. The first thing any buyer should know is that there is a significant difference between a foreclosure and a short sale. Foreclosures are also called bank owned or REO properties. REO simply stands for Real Estate Owned, which is the what the banks call the properties they have taken back. There are significant differences in the processes in purchasing a short … (2 comments)

Preparing for a Short Sale - 05/26/10 10:51 AM
Short sales have become a huge part of our real estate market here in Orlando with around 5,600 active and around 6,800 pending sales right now. Overall there are just under 16,000 total active listings and nearly 11,000 contracts pending. The first thing you should be prepared for as a seller is a relatively long process. Your lender or lenders must approve the short sale once you have a contract on your home, and with the number of these in process it does not move very quickly. I have to say, in my opinion it is much better than two years … (1 comments)

Orlando Short Sales - 05/24/10 01:44 PM
Short sales have become a very crazy segment of out market here in Orlando. I believe the banks have come around to making quicker decisions a little too late. Two years ago, the banks were not prepared for the influx of the requests for short sales. Today, they seem more prepared, but the market has moved on too. Buyers are placing contracts on multiple short sales as a back up plan while they continue to put offers on REO's. Many short sale sellers appear to be using the short sale to delay the inevitable with no real expectation of selling.
I … (2 comments)

Bank of America Short Sales - 05/20/10 07:40 AM
Last month, I received an e-mail from Bank of America saying that all short sales were now being handled on the Equator system. Equator has been around for a while as REOTrans. As the old name implies, it was a system for banks to manage their REO properties. Bank of America made the move late last year to put their short sale process on the system as well. I fought it, because I had a short sale I have been working on since November of 2007 with Countrywide then B of A. I really did not want to start all over … (1 comments)

Banks in Real Estate part 2 of 2 - 05/19/10 05:22 PM
The second story in this two part blog about banks in real estate involves a first time buyer. We really have two markets going on in Orlando right now with most of the more affordable properties being distressed sales, and more "normal" sales in the higher priced homes. This puts most first time home buyers up against each other and investors paying cash. Buyers that are using some form of down payment assistance have even more obstacles in their path to home ownership. Most of the down payment programs look at the properties with more scrutiny, and many require a clear … (0 comments)

Banks in Real Estate part 1 of 2 - 05/18/10 12:13 PM
Forever it seems, banks have been trying to get into real estate. With all the short sales and foreclosures (2/3 of our sales here in Orlando) they have finally gotten what they wanted. Realtors have fought legislation time and time again that would have allowed banks into the real estate market, and now with banks controlling so many real estate transactions, everyone can see why. As Realtors, we must put our customers best interest ahead of our own. Banks really do not have an obligation to anyone but their own financial statements. Quite frankly, I question a lot of their decision … (3 comments)

Real Estate Finance - 05/12/10 02:50 PM
There has been a lot of finger pointing going on lately regarding the real estate finance industry. I think just about everyone has been blamed for the state of real estate finance. Realtors should not have sold the "overpriced" homes, and lenders should not have made sub-prime, interest only, adjustable rate or negative amortization loans. The buyers should not have bought homes they could not afford. The government should have had stricter policies or more regulations. The fact is that real estate was in short supply and money was easy to get.
That was not a problem as long as the … (2 comments)

Florida Tops in Realtor.com Searches - 05/11/10 03:45 PM
http://www.realtor.com/blogs/2010/05/10/top-10-most-searched-homes-on-realtor-com-4/#more-19570
Check out the above Realtor.com article about last week's most popular home searches. Notice that five of the top five and six of the top ten searches were for homes here in the Sunshine State. Three of those top five homes are located here in Central Florida, which is why I am so optimistic about the real estate market here. The benefits that attracted people to Central Florida have not changed. We still have great weather most of the year, and close proximity to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. We still have all the attractions, golf courses, lakes, parks and … (2 comments)

Baldwin Park Real Estate Sales 2010 so far - 05/10/10 01:57 PM
While Baldwin Park in uptown Orlando is a relatively new neighborhood with homes still under construction, it has a well established location. Located between downtown Orlando and Winter Park, Baldwin Park has a fantastic location with easy access to everything Orlando. This terrific location and arguably the best schools in Orange County, make it a great place to call home. This shows in some of the sales statistics for the area. While the Orlando real estate market is dominated by distressed properties, so far this year only 10 bank owned and 12 short sales have sold in Baldwin Park. The 22 distressed properties … (1 comments)

Orlando Home Sales April 2010 - 05/07/10 09:22 AM
These are my final numbers for the month of April, and I think we may be starting to see just a wee bit of a change. The active inventory is actually down a few hundred homes, probably a result of the last minute push to take advantage of the expiring tax credit. Today Orlando Realtors have 15,689 homes listed including 1,741 bank owned and 5,601 short sales, representing 11.1% and 35.7% of the inventory respectively. Both the number and percentage of distressed properties are on the lower side of what we have been seeing for several months. Pending sales remain very … (0 comments)

Orlando April Home Sales (so far) - 05/03/10 01:35 PM
The numbers are looking pretty close to my expectations. So far there are 2,275 closed sales recorded with a median sales price of $110,000 again. Of those sales 1,014 were bank owned and 500 were short sales making up around 2/3's of the closed sales. The expriation of the tax credit I believe is responsible for pulling our inventory down a bit to 15,703 active listings. Of the active properties, 1,740 are REO's and 5,628 are short sales. Pendings also dropped a little with a lot of deals closing at the end of the month. There are still 10,960 under contract … (2 comments)

 
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David Welch, Orlando Real Estate Optimist

Orlando, FL

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Remax 200 Realty

Address: 954 S. Orlando Ave., Winter Park, FL, 32789

Office Phone: (407) 629-6330 x 399

Cell Phone: (407) 924-7670

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Orlando Real Estate Blog, news, statistics, marketing reports, insight, opinions. Orlando real estate includes, Winter Park Windermere, Apopka, Ocoee, and Winter Garden, as well as Conway and Dr. Phillips areas of Orlando.


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