Appraising in Central Florida

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. (Epictetus)  As the end of a difficult year approaches, I think back to what was accomplished during the past "slow year" in the business cycle.  With the oversupply of downtime, most appraisers exclaimed what they need to do, w...

 Rumblings in the darkness is beginning to become a familiar sound around the historical section of Downtown Oviedo.  Last night, the continuing fight to save another piece of Oviedo history took place when the Spencer House was repositioned to it's new home.  Realizing the importance of preservi...

A colleague had recently urged me to take a look at Altos Research, a real estate research company that produce real estate market trend reports.  Altos claims to offer "Real Time Real Estate Research" for various MSA's that seemed to have merit from only a high altitude.  There full product appe...

Pick up a local magazine or watch the nightly news and you can usually find a blurb or sound bite regarding the current real estate market, more specifically how the appraisal fits into the process.  The appraisal industry is suffering some of the same negative media attention that other real est...

LSI , A Fidelity Information Services Company has reiterated an attempt to sway appraisers to comply with the company's SLA (Service Level Agreement).  Although we have limited experience with LSI (only WaMu orders) and have not worked with them since early in the year, I'm not sure why this rubs...

I don't know where I have been, but I just read the story that Levitt and Sons filed for bankruptcy in Broward County, Florida on Friday.  The builder listed assets of less than $1 million dollars and a debt load of over $100 million.  They have a large presence in the Central Florida market and ...

   November 2, 2007The Seminole County Supervisor of Elections has posted the final results in the election for Oviedo's Mayor.   With eight of 8 precincts reporting:Mary Lou Andrews       1,021    56.9% Tom Hagood                     702     40.7% Although both of the candidates were viewed as h...

  "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"Over the length of my appraisal career, I have performed appraisal inspections during 100+ degree afternoons, hours before and a day after violent storms, and even when it...

This is the continuation of the previous market analysis post on Oviedo Real Estate.   These numbers are taken from the local MLS (as of 10/31/07) and do not include any FSBO or private builder transfers.   The extracted figures and graphs help to visualize trends over time and illustrates what t...

This week I wanted to show what what types of data that I look at each time I am asked to perform a residential property appraisal.  I will typically include a graphic representation of these numbers in my reports as they tend to illustrate the current market quicker to the reader than just words...