Central Florida Orlando Real Estate - full service & investor friendly Realtor specializing in foreclosure, short sale, & bank owned REO houses

Is a real estate career at Sand Dollar Realty Group right for you?

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:30:06 -0600

We are a unique Florida real estate broker for intermediate level Realtors and for real estate investors who want the advantage of having a real estate license and access to the MLS. Here are some of the many benefits of joining our firm in addition to the fantastic commission splits we offer with our 100% commission split and 90% commission split plans.

Negotiate your own commission rates with customers.
The creativity to offer full-service listings, flat fee MLS listings, menu-based (a la carte) services, buyer rebates, etc.
Committed support staff. Experienced receptionist on staff during business hours.
Assistance with showings and buyer calls. All calls, emails, and messages on your listings are forwarded to you.
Incoming faxes sent to you via Mongofax/email.
Professional advice, detailed transaction review, and 1-on-1 counseling and goal setting assitance available from veteran real estate broker.
Free advertising space and property listings on our website.
Advertising experience with internet ads and local newspaper & magazines.
Open house opportunities. Our office typically has 50 to 100 vacant properties listed for sale at any given time. Many of these are available for associates to hold open houses in and generate potential buyer/seller leads from.
Professional name tags, clothing and apparel with our logos, and For Sale signs are available.
Free online forms and checklists available to assist you in making your listing, selling, and closing transactions that much easier. Check out our Associate's webpage for more details.
Optional monthly sales meetings with relevant topics and speakers to help increase your sales volume and keep you up to date on the latest changes and trends.
Independence and flexibility of working from home.
Centrally located Altamonte Springs office. Free use of our conference room, fax machine, copy machine, scanner, WIFI internet, and on staff notary for you and your customers.
Input your own listings and photos directly into the MLS.
Commission checks can be issued on the same day as the closing.
Easy access to old closed files. We electronically scan and store all files.
Errors & Omissions insurance paid by the brokerage to cover all your transactions.
We have memberships in the Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Brevard County, the Ocala/Marion County MLS, and the Regional MLS in South Florida to let you assist buyers and sellers in those areas.
Access to FAR's MLS Advantage allowing you to search the MLS of another 20+ counties (covering most of the State of Florida).
Registered with the U.S. Department of HUD to sell HUD homes. Veteran broker is very experienced with the special rules, tricks of the trade, and contract paperwork concerning bidding on HUD homes.
We are an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida which you are free to advertise.
We have business memberships in Central Florida Realty Investors, Investors Resource Center, and the Seminole County Regional Chamber of Commerce which you are able to use as networking opportunities for your business.
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 and take your listings and customers with you.

And here are just a few things you don't have to deal with:

No floor time. Our staff handles this for you.
No mandatory meetings. All sales meetings optional.
No hidden fees, surprise fees, or franchise fees. We don't nickel & dime our sales associates.
No quotas of any kind. Regardless of your volume your commission split does not change.
No bureaucracy, big corporate structure, or endless rules and regulations to deal with.
No requirement that you list or run any sales of your own personal houses through our firm.

Being totally honest though, our firm is not for everyone. If you need a real estate broker to feed you lots of leads, provide you classroom or video training, profit-sharing and retirement benefits, health insurance, multi-level marketing, and a cubicle to sit in every day, then we are not the firm for you. However if you want an investor-friendly atmosphere, a more hands off approach to how you negotiate with customers, and the freedom to be creative, then please contact me for a confidential interview. It might just be the best career choice you make.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

We sell foreclosure, short sale, and bank owned REO house home throughout Central Florida, metro Orlando, and the Space Coast. We sell and list Central Florida real estate and Orlando real estate. Free list of foreclosure and short sale houses available. Our firm also provides flat fee MLS listings, For Sale By Owner, and menu-based services in most parts of Florida including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Apopka, Kissimmee, Clermont, Casselberry, Sanford, Lake Mary, and Deltona.

How to keep up with what is happening in the Central Florida real estate market

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:30:48 -0600

The real estate market seems to be in a constant state of change. From $8,000 tax credits to foreclosure law changes to statistics on local home sales, there are new things happening on a weekly if not daily basis it seems. How is anyone to keep up with all this?

As the managing broker of 2 medium-sized real estate firms, I have made it part of my job description to constantly keep up with the pulse of what is happening in the real estate marketplace from the local Central Florida level up to the national level. With so much going on it almost sounds like a full-time job to stay informed. But the truth is it really isn't that hard to keep up. Certainly nobody can know everything that is going on, but the power of the internet can allow you to stay very well informed. In this article I will reference the sites and news sources I use on a daily basis to keep up with the real estate world.

On a national level, I subscribe to the following sources to get the majority of my information. USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the National Association of Realtors® site www.Realtor.org, Realty Times, Inman News, and RIS Media. On a statewide level, I subscribe to the Florida Association of Realtors® and the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers. And on a local level, I subscribe to the Orlando Regional Realtor® Association, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Orlando Business Journal. The Orlando Regional Realtor® Association actually has a very detailed "Housing Statistics" section on their website. It's definitely worth checking out.

You might be reading this and thinking, who on Earth has time to read all those newspapers or websites. I for one will say "Not me." There is no way I can spend hours every day reading all these sources and get anything else productive done. The great thing is that you don't have to. With the technology provided by the internet, you can actually subscribe to these websites via what is known as an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) like Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader). It is very easy to set up and you can get highlights of the important stories that are going on along with updates.

Many of these sites even have email newsletters that they will send to you on a daily basis and you can simply skim right through the headlines. Once you have these RSS feeds and emails set up, you can be greatly informed on real estate issues by investing only about 15 minutes a day. Best of all everything all these sites and emails are completely free. Even getting up to date information from the Realtor and Mortgage Broker Associations is free, and you don't need to be a member of those groups to sign up.

There is a lot of fantastic information out there on the internet. It's really not that hard to assimilate. But if you do need help with it or just want to shoot the breeze on what is going on in the marketplace, feel free to contact me anytime.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Orlando home in gated community - 8138 Lake Park Estates Blvd, Orlando, FL 32818

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:31:07 -0600

Rob Arnold | Sand Dollar Realty Group Inc. | 407-389-7318

8138 LAKE PARK ESTATES BLVD., Orlando, FL

GATED COMMUNITY - TWO STORY HOME WITH MASTER SUITE DOWNSTAIRS. THE SECOND FLOOR HAS DEN/OFFICE, 3 BEDROOMS AND FULL BATH. LOCATED MINUTES FROM DINING

4BR/2.5BA Single Family House

offered at $184,900

Year Built	2000
Sq Footage	2,072
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	2 full, 1 partial
Floors	Unspecified
Parking	Unspecified
Lot Size	.23 acres
HOA/Maint	$400 per month

DESCRIPTION

VERY LIVEABLE TWO STORY HOME WITH MASTER SUITE DOWNSTAIRS. THE SECOND FLOOR HAS 3 BEDROOMS, FULL BATH, DEN/OFFICE. IF MORTGAGE APPROVED, MOVE IN BEFORE END OF YEAR AND CLOSE IN JANUARY OPTION AVAILABLE!! SELLER MAY PROVIDE FINANCING IF YOU FALL SHORT OF CONVENTIONAL FINANCING. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR $8K TAX REBATE. SOD ALLOWANCE MAY BE AVAILABLE OF LANDSCAPING NOT COMPLETED BEFORE YOU MOVE IN.

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Central A/C	- Central heat	- Walk-in closet
- Tile floor	- Family room	- Living room
- Office/Den	- Dining room	- Breakfast nook
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Washer	- Dryer	- Balcony, Deck, or Patio
- Yard

OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES

- POSSIBLE OWNER FINANCING

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

EXTERIOR	Photo 1
Photo 1	Photo 1

Contact info:

Rob Arnold

Sand Dollar Realty Group Inc.

407-389-7318

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Dec 14, 2009, 7:31am PST

Home for sale orlando, orlando house for sale, flat fee mls orlando, flat fee listing orlando, for sale by owner orlando,fsbo orlando

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Orlando real estate market statistics for November 2009

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:14:40 -0600

The metro Orlando real estate stats for November 2009 have been released by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. Here is a direct link to these statistics. Below is a break down of these numbers. The stats are for Seminole County & Orange County, Florida including Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, Waterford Lakes, Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Casselberry, Lake Mary, Oviedo, Winter Springs, & Sanford.

Inventory New Pendings Under Contract Expired Withdrawn Closed Days on Market

January 09 22,613 2282 3830 1377 1598 1050 103

Sept 2009 15,967 3858 8790 846 1014 2292 96

Oct 2009 15,743 3864 9050 924 646 2319 92

Nov 2009 16,002 3023 8633 636 1047 2238 86

The Orlando market numbers never cease to amaze me. For the first time since January 2009, the inventory numbers actually increased for metro Orlando homes available for sale. This entire year we have had a slow but steady decline in home inventory until last month when we had a 1.6% increase in the number of homes available. Additionally the number of new pending listings went down dramatically (a 21.8% decrease in just one month) and the number of closed sales decreased slightly as well (a 3.5% decrease).

Although nobody can say for sure, my bet is that this increase in inventory coupled with decrease in pending transactions was caused by 2 different factors.

(1) The $8000 first-time home buyer tax credit was set to expire on November 30, 2009 and nobody was sure if it would get extended. (It was extended by Congress in mid-November.) So owner occupant buyers were less motivated to make offers in November because they were thinking they wouldn't qualify for the tax credit, so why buy now.

(2) As we approach the holiday season, more people are focused on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays than they are on buying a new home and moving.

Another figure to note is the number of properties "under contract" decreased for the first time since November 2008. Besides the slight decrease in buyer demand referenced above another factor is taking place. As the 2009 tax year gets closer to its end, banks are more motivated to get some of these forever dangling short sales off their books.

As far as foreclosure stats, roughly 21% of the sales in November were short sales while another 42% were bank owned REO properties. Only 37% of the sales last month were not in foreclosure. These foreclosure stats are basically the same as they have been for the last several months in Central Florida.

Prices continue to decline slightly. The median price for November was $123,000 and the average price was $153,100. These are way down from just a year ago in November 2008 when they were at a median of $166,000 and $207,500.

But to end on a positive statistic, days on market has continued to decline. The average days on market for November was just 86 days. They haven't been that low since December 2006. Compare that to March 2008 when it took an average of 128 days to get a contract.

Houses are still selling. And if priced right, they often sell briskly. If you would like a free market analysis of your home, please contact me and I will be glad to get one together for you quickly.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

We need to put a salary cap on those "evil rich"

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:02:18 -0600

USA Today had an article in Friday's newspaper For feds, more get 6-figure salaries . This article is truly unbelievable. The "evil rich" mentioned in my title line are not Wall Street bankers or heads of defunct auto companies. We are talking about high paid federal government employees.

According to this article some 19% (that's nearly 1 out of every 5) of federal employees earns over $100,000 per year. In fact over the last 18 months, this number increased from 14% to 19% - all during what has been deemed the "worst economy since the Great Depression". Well it certainly is not a depression if you work for the feds. If anything, it is a time to rejoice in the monetary blessings being showered upon you by Uncle Sam.

Some examples ... civilian defense department employees earning over $150,000 per year increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 by June 2009. (But after all, the wars are going so well.)

DOT employees earning over $170,000 per year increased from 1 employee to 1,690 employees. (And who can blame them considering how wonderful your last airport experience probably was?)

This is crazy. I'm not blaming Obama for this. Bush, Obama, Congress, and their carefree attitudes towards runaway government spending have allowed this madness to occur.

The average salary of a federal employee is $71,206 compared to just $40,331 in the private sector. Not to mention these federal employees get great benefit perks - fabulous health insurance, lots of vacation days, and golden pension plans for life. And the numbers listed above do not even include bonuses or overtime pay. Federal employees are living in an "elite" world that us commoners just wouldn't understand.

Before the President wants to appoint a "pay czar" to dictate salaries of corporate CEOs, he needs to do a major shakedown in his own ranks. In my personal opinion, the federal government is way too big anyway. They could take 50% of the non-military employees and fire them all tomorrow and it wouldn't make any significant difference in the lives of most Americans.

So why do we Americans put up with this nonsense? Most likely because the majority of Americans instead of reading USA Today are watching some reality show on TV - that's why.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Flat fee MLS only listings Orlando Kissimmee Altamonte Springs Deltona Florida FAQ

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:21:51 -0600

Can I make changes to my listing once it has been inputted into the MLS? Yes. We allow unlimited changes to your MLS listing during the first 14 days. After that we allow 1 change per week with a maximum of 20 changes during the life of the listing. We are quite liberal with allowing changes as long as we feel we are not being taken advantage of. All changes will need to be in writing and submitted on a Status Change Form.

Can I use my own For Sale By Owner sign? We recommend that you use our company For Sale sign. Other Realtors often get confused or nervous about not getting paid their commission if they do not see the Listing Realtor's sign in the yard. If you do want to use your own sign, we recommend that you write the MLS # on the sign along with the words "Brokers Protected." That should make other Realtors feel more comfortable in showing your property. If you are attempting to rent your property, we recommend inputting your property on Rentals.com either through our firm or on your own and using their sign with your contact information on it.

How much commission should I offer to a buyer's agent? You are free to offer whatever commission you want to other Realtors. Our standard listing agreement has 3% pre-printed on the form, but you are welcome to cross that out and change it. However, we recommend that for properties priced under $500,000 that you offer no less than 2.5% to them. For properties priced above $500,000, we recommend that you offer no less than 2%. When the market is slow, we recommend that you instead offer a higher commission or a bonus (some people offer as high as 5%-10% commissions) to entice Realtors to show your property to their buyers. With properties listed For Rent, we recommend offering no less than 50% of the first month's rent to other Realtors as a commission incentive to bring a tenant.

For more frequently asked questions on Florida flat fee mls listings and for sale by owner services in metro Orlando / Kissimmee go to www.SDRhouses.com/flatfeemls.html.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Central Florida commercial property for sale - Orlando, Apopka, Sanford, Longwood, Eustis, Ormond Beach

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:06:52 -0600

Normally our firm specializes in resindential and investment properties, but for some reason we currently have several Central Florida commercial properties available. You can see a full inventory including photos of everything we have available at the property page on our website. Also our listings in MLS and on Loopnet.

1. Downtown Apopka area. About 1/3 of a city block at the corner of Forest & 2^nd Ave. (One parcel address is 235 S. Forest Ave. - there are 4 parcels) Has a small apartment building, a triplex, a single-family home, and a vacant corner lot - all buildings are occupied with tenants. Totals about 1.6 acres, zoned PO/I. Ripe for development. Asking $990,000 but open for negotiation. May consider creative financing.

2. Downtown Eustis. Bank owned REO. 3 bed/1.5 bath frame house. Zoned R/OT. Located on busy 4-lane road - Orange Ave is State Road 44 which is the main east-west road in town. There are houses, offices, and commercial buildings in the immediate vicinity. House next door that has the same zoning is listed for $230,000. Our seller is much more motivated and is asking $79,900.

3. West Orlando near Kirkman & Colonial. 3235 leasable square feet. Presently rented to a hair salon and a real estate office. This is a nice looking well maintained office center in west Orlando. Zoned PO - Professional Office. Estate sale, again motivated owner. $299,900.

4. Sanford on highway 17-92. Zoned GC2. 252 feet of frontage on 17-92, just over ½ acre of land. 1085 leaseable square feet. Presently occupied by a used car lot. Asking $489,900. May consider creative financing.

5. Longwood strip shopping center located across from the South Seminole Hospital. Corner lots located directly on State Road 434. Nearly 5000 square feet of net leaseable space. All storefronts are occupied. Asking $1,200,000. May consider creative financing.

6. Ormond Beach mainland. 7 lots composing .78 acres. Currently has a 2 bed/1 bath home on the property that is rented out. Zoned R-4 for townhomes, single-families, or duplexes. Located just north of Daytona and 3 miles away from the beach. Asking $119,900.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Moodys may downgrade the United States' credit rating - Washington are you listening???

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:03:13 -0600

The breaking news that has gotten little press so far is that Moody's Investor Services is considering downgrading the credit rating of the United States government along with the governments of several other countries. USA Today has a detailed article going into all these ratings which also effect countries like Spain, Greece, and England.

As Congress and the White House continue discussions on a massive health care bill, cap & trade tax increase bills, Stimulus Part 2, and a very questionable long-term plan for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the world is taking notice.

The world continues to question the creditworthiness of the United States. All this massive spending is getting downright scary. At some point the back of the camel will break. This is just one more straw being added on top of the massive debt load that all Americans are already facing.

Enough of this madness! The federal government needs to radically shift in the opposite direction or all Americans are going to pay the price. I fear for the America that my kids will inherit unless something changes in a major way.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Sunrail is on its way to being a reality in Central Florida

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:16:07 -0600

Central Florida's first commuter rail system looks like it will become a reality. Legislation that would create Sunrail passed both houses of the Florida legislature and is headed to Governor Charlie Crist for a signature. He has indicated that he will in fact sign it. Thus paving the way for a brand new mode of mass transit serving Volusia, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola Counties.

You can read some of the details of this breaking news in the Orlando Sentinel.

I have mixed emotions on this subject. Personally, I doubt that I will ever ride on Sunrail except maybe just as an adventure with my kids. But otherwise I don't think it would save me any time in getting around unless I was heading all the way to the very end of its route in Kissimmee or Deland and didn't need to bring any baggage or tools with me.

I expect it will be great for the few commuters that will ride this new form of mass transit, but I also expect it will be a major bottomless pit for Florida taxpayers - similar to the struggling Tri-Rail in South Florida.

My advice is to invest in real estate located within a few blocks of the train stations. Residential renters should pay more to live close to a station. And commercial business should get some extra traffic from Sunrail riders.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Is House Flipping Making A Comeback?

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:59:49 -0600

I read this article in the Wall Street Journal this morning too. House flipping is definitely back. Our office has helped investors flip several dozen houses this year and I've done 2 myself. Hopefully have another flip deal on an REO closing this Friday.

Via Johnny Davis (Davis Signature Realty LLC):

According to today's The Wall Street Journal, house flipping is making a comeback. The article states that "flipping homes is back in fashion". The story goes on to tell of a Phoenix, AZ. man who bought a house at auction for $486,300 and sold it a week later to a lady moving into the area for $690,000.

Are we going to see the "flipping" trend once again? Will we start to see a spike in tv shows like "Flip This House", "Flip That House" and "Property Ladder"?

Hopefully, most people will realize that the people who are doing the flipping now are purchasing homes at foreclosure auctions and with cash. There are a lot of good buys in the South Lake County area right now, but you can't really flip the good deals around here. Most of the REO's in this area won't let you resell them for a specific period of time.

If you have extra cash that you can afford to possibly lose, knock yourself out and enjoy the courthouse steps process. However, I would really think long and hard about borrowing money to purchase a house that you hope to resell for a profit. The house you are buying at auction? The people who lost it probably had the same ideas you have. Be smart people and let the real estate market continue to correct itself.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Johnny Davis - Broker/Owner - Davis Signature Realty LLC

Davis Signature Realty LLC is a Full Service Real Estate Brokerage that specializes in all of Lake County Florida and parts of West Orange County Florida (Winter Garden, Ocoee, Oakland and Windermere). If you are in the market to buy or sell a home in Lake or West Orange County, I would love the opportunity to talk to you to see if I could be of help to you.

Phone: 321-231-4141 Email: johnnydavis@davissignaturerealty.com

Website: www.davissignaturerealty.com

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

More FAQs about for sale by owner flat fee mls listing in Orlando Florida

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:26:39 -0600

What counties / areas do you service? We currently service the following 29 Florida counties. If you do not see your county, call us anyway because we still may be able to help you. Alachua County, Baker, Bradford, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Clay, DeSoto, Duval, Flagler, Hardee, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Nassau, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, East & Central Pasco, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, Saint Lucie, Sumter, and Volusia County (West Volusia, Daytona area, and New Smyrna area). Properties in Flagler County will be loaded into the Daytona Beach area MLS. CLICK HERE FOR SERVICE AREA MAP

How long is my listing for? Our standard listing agreement is for 12 months. If you want to list for a shorter period of time, you are welcome to choose how long you want to list for. We typically do not list properties for longer than 12 months, but we will allow you to extend your listing indefinitely at no additional charge if it is close to expiring.

How much time does it take to get listed on the MLS and the internet sites? Typically we can get your listing loaded into the MLS within 1-2 business days of receiving all of the paperwork from you. Realtor.com and the other internet websites upload their data from the MLS. Listings often take 4-5 business days to show up on these websites.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

FAQs on Orlando Florida flat fee MLS listing service

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:21:39 -0600

Explain to me how a flat fee MLS listing works. This is a quick summary of our flat fee MLS program. With our Basic Listing Plan, your property information along with up to 10 color photographs gets placed into the MLS and gets advertised onto the many websites listed above. You take care of the showings, the negotiations, and the closing. If another Realtor sells it, you pay them the pre-agreed commission (typically around 3%). If you sell it yourself, no additional commission is due. You will save thousands. Ask about our special programs for multiple properties. Click here for more information about our special investor programs. We do handle routine phone calls regarding Realtor showings and basic property information so as not to inundate you with phone calls, but any important calls like showing appointments or contract offers are forwarded directly to you. You can pickup a Sand Dollar "For Sale" sign when you stop by the office with the forms and your payment or a sign can be shipped to you at your request. Blank contract forms can be emailed or sent to you. Also for just a little bit more money we offer a Deluxe Listing Plan that offers many more upgrades to the Basic Plan including a virtual/video tour, market updates, electronic lockbox, and more. You can pay for the Deluxe Plan or just pay for certain additional services as you need them. A price list is located towards the bottom of this web page.

Can I offer a property For Rent in the MLS? Yes. Just like we can input a home for sale, we can also input a home for rent in the MLS. The procedures are basically the same as a home for sale. However the data input form and the commission/fee structure is slightly different. We can also do a 1-time input of your listing on Craigslist, Postlets, and Rentals.com for an additional small fee. Sorry we do not offer For Rent signs to our customers unless you use our additional service to post your property on www.Rentals.com .

If I sell or rent my house on my own, what happens? Many times our customers end up selling to a buyer that found the property on Realtor.com, the internet, or other marketing without involving another Realtor. If you happen to be fortunate enough to sell or rent your house on your own, then your savings are even greater. You do not owe us anything more than the upfront money already paid to us. Upon closing, we will need a copy of the signed HUD-1 settlement statement in order to close out the file. You can provide us the contact information for the title company or attorney handling the closing, and we will take care of obtaining the settlement statement. If you end up renting your property, we just need you to send in the completed Status Change Form so that we can close out your listing in the MLS.

Our firm services all of metro Orlando including Apopka, Winter Garden, Winter Park, Maitland, Kissimmee, Davenport, Clermont, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Lake Mary, Sanford, Oviedo, Deltona, Deland and 29 other counties in Florida.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Great Central Florida home deals we sold in November 2009 - orlando, deltona, altamonte springs, saint cloud, winter park

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:48:00 -0600

November was another active month for the Orlando area. Below is just a sampling of all the great deals that Realtors with our firm were able to get sold in Central Florida.

1095 Santa Clara 511 1st Ave 1104 Craig Ct

1. 1095 Santa Clara Drive, Deltona, FL 32738. 3/2/2 block home. This bank owned REO was in great condition. Buyers bid it up over asking price. Sold for $100,000.

2. 31 Areca Drive, Orlando, FL 32807. 4 bed/2 bath block home. Our firm sold this property to an investor a few months ago. The investor fixed the place up into perfect condition and then re-listed with us. After less than a month on the market an FHA buyer bought it for $122,900.

3. 511 1st Avenue, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714. 3 bed/1 bath block home. This home is located in the fabulous A+ Lake Brantley High School zone. It was a handyman special foreclosure and was purchased by an investor for the super cheapo price of just $27,500.

4. 332 Beckett Court, Winter Park, FL 32792. 4/2 block home located in Winter Park Pines. This was an estate sale and located in the Winter Park High School zone. Great deal at $224,900.

5. 1104 Craig Court, Saint Cloud, FL 34772. 4 bed/3 bath pool home. This was a short sale. One of our short sale expert Realtors got this closed for just $158,500.

New deals become available every month. From short sales to bank owned REO to commercial investments. Our firm gets properties sold. Take a look at our latest inventory at the Sand Dollar Realty Group website. And let's make a deal happen today.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Orlando Florida flat fee MLS frequently asked questions - for sale by owner

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:22:00 -0600

These are just a few questions about Florida flat fee MLS listings.

What exactly is the MLS? The MLS is a powerful tool that Realtors use to market properties. MLS stands for Multiple-Listing Service which is the computer database that Realtors use nationwide to list real estate. The MLS is owned by local member Realtor associations and is typically broken up into regions or counties. The Mid-Florida Regional MLS is the largest MLS in Florida and is shared by over 30,000+ Realtors in the Mid-Florida area including those in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Sumter, Polk, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Hardee, DeSoto, Western Volusia, and Eastern & Central Pasco Counties including the metro Orlando and metro Tampa areas. The Southeast Florida Regional MLS services the Southeast Florida and Treasure Coast area and is shared by some 25,000+ Realtors in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, Martin County, and St. Lucie County. The Northeast Florida MLS services Baker County, Bradford County, Clay County, Duval County, and Putnam County including the entire metro Jacksonville area. Some areas like eastern Volusia County including the Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach area, Brevard County, Ocala/Marion County, Alachua County, and Nassau County MLS's cover much smaller areas. Realtors who are members of these MLS's can view your property information and show your property to their customers. The general public does not have access to the MLS. Generally only dues paying Realtors have access to these databases, however MLS data typically uploads onto many other real estate websites.

What other websites does the MLS load onto? By listing your property in the MLS, your property is automatically loaded with a Standard Listing onto the most powerful real estate website in America, Realtor.com where millions of potential buyers can review your property's information. The MLS also automatically uploads onto many other internet sites like My Florida Home MLS.com, Orlando Sentinel.com MLS search (not their paid classified ads) for Mid-Florida MLS listings, AOL.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com, Cyberhomes.com, SDRhouses.com, and many more similar real estate websites. You can see a detailed list of websites by clicking here. Being that these websites are owned by 3rd party companies, we only have limited control over the exact content uploaded onto these websites from the MLS. However the exposure that uploading onto these websites provides is unmatched by any non-MLS real estate service provider. Also the MLS rules strictly prohibit us from putting anyone's contact information (including names, phone numbers, email addresses, or websites) into the public remarks section and thus your contact information will not appear on these 3rd party websites - they will only show our contact information. So our promise to you is that we will always forward the contact information of prospective buyers directly to you.

Why would I do a flat fee MLS listing instead of selling as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO)? The answer is simple: Market Exposure. Most serious buyers are working with a Realtor to help them buy a house. The MLS database is used exclusively by Realtors to search for properties for sale in the area. Thousands of Realtors use the MLS every day to search for properties. The MLS automatically uploads onto many real estate websites and exposes your home to millions of potential buyers by virtue of these websites. Some 70%+ of all house buyers begin their search on the internet, and nearly 80% of all FSBO sellers end up hiring a Realtor to sell their house anyway. The cost to list in the MLS is only a few hundred dollars, and you get all that additional exposure. If you are considering using one of those FSBO or For Sale By Owner type services that charge hundreds or thousands of dollars upfront and do not even offer MLS exposure, you may want to strongly consider doing a flat fee MLS listing instead of or even in addition to those services.

Other traditional FSBO marketing includes store bought (often unprofessional) yard signs, newspaper ads (quite expensive), property flyers, posting on FSBO websites, open houses, etc. While all these things can generate leads and we certainly do not discourage them, the exposure they give you is limited at best and often produces dismal results. As we stated before, most serious buyers are working with a Realtor. Smart Realtors are going to make sure that their buyer is pre-approved to obtain a mortgage before they even start showing the buyer a house. That Realtor is going to want to know that they are going to get paid a commission prior to showing your house to their buyer. That is another feature of the MLS. By advertising in the MLS, you are offering broker protection by automatically offering a commission to all of the member Realtors. While there is no guarantee that the MLS will sell your house, it is definitely your best avenue for getting your property exposed to the greatest number of potential buyers.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Sunrail in Central Florida - is it the answer to traffic problems or a financial thunderstorm?

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:04:47 -0600

Today starts a special session by Florida's legislature on Sunrail, the proposed 61+ mile commuter railway running north-south through Central Florida / metro Orlando.

The benefits touted by Sunrail are great. Saving the expense of a whole lane off of I-4. Getting all those commuters and cars off the road and onto mass transit. Seriously, who doesn't want less traffic and less pollution in Central Florida? The concept is fantastic. Our local Realtor associations are for it. Our local chambers of commerce are for it. Most of the cities and county governments are for it.

However, there are 2 giant issues that nobody can ever give a good answer for.

(1) How will it pay for itself on an ongoing basis once it is up and running?

Tri-Rail in South Florida has been in existence for over 20 years. It runs parallel to I-95 and the Florida Turnpike through the Fort Lauderdale and Miami area. Despite being around for that long, traffic on both of those highways is in gridlock nearly every day. And in order to get Sunrail in place, south Florida legislators are requiring a new tax on rental cars to go towards subsidizing Tri-Rail. Tri-Rail can't pay for itself after all these years yet taxpayers are supposed to believe that the State of Florida should start up another rail line. Makes a whole lot of financial sense???

(2) Who will actually ride Sunrail especially considering the corridor that it travels along?

The train corridor's location is a big problem. Instead of following I-4, the corridor follows Highway 17-92 for the mostpart. The corridor misses big employment centers like Heathrow/Lake Mary, Uptown Altamonte/Cranes Roost, Maitland Center, Millenia, Universal Studios, International Drive, and Disney World. It will mostly service Sanford, downtown Winter Park, downtown Orlando, and downtown Kissimmee. Not to mention its starting point is several miles west of Deland (almost in the country) and ends way on the north end of Poinciana (about 10 miles north of where all the houses are). In order to get to most of the rail stations, people will either have to drive their car and park it somewhere or else hop on a bus. Then they get on the train and take it where they need to. With all that driving and bus riding, it might be quicker and less trouble to simply get in your car and drive to your job. Of course, the State of Florida could create a bunch of new bus routes, build big parking garages, or add new train spurs. However, I don't believe any of those expenses are even in the budget.

Personally I live about 4 miles west of the train route in Altamonte Springs. During rush hour it takes me about 30 minutes to get into downtown Orlando or about 30 minutes to get into downtown Sanford. By the time I drive to the train station (4 miles is too far to walk especially with a suitcase or bag), and then hop on the train, and then walked to whatever building I needed to go downtown, I could have already been where I wanted to be. So why waste all this time and energy trying to use Sunrail?

The truth is that most people don't like mass transit. (Except maybe government leaders.) I've been looking at Lynx buses for years. (Lynx is the bus service that serves metro Orlando.) The buses are unbelieveably empty (and the bus service is losing millions of dollars every year). Even during rush hour times, you would be hard-pressed to find a bus with more than 20 or so people in it. These same bus riders are going to be the majority of the people riding on Sunrail. Sounds like a lot of empty train cars to me.

According to the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Sunrail website, the initial cost will be $615 million to get it started up and the initial expected ridership will be a mere 4,300 passenger trips per day. Average fare is $2.50. You do the math 4,300 passenger trips * $2.50 per person * 365 days in a year = $3,923,750 in revenue. Am I missing something here? Based on these figures, it would take over 153 years before the revenues would pay for just the initial start up costs (not counting the continual cost of operating the trains).

Not to mention that there some 3 million people living in Central Florida and only 4,300 are expected be riding it initially. That's just 1.4% of the entire area's population. Doesn't sound to me like that will put a dent in the giant traffic jams we have? Ridership is projected to increase to 7,400 passenger trips by the year 2030 according to the Sunrail website. So assuming that the population in Central Florida never increases, in just 20 short years the ridership will be up to 2.5% of the area's population. Wow, that gets me excited about spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money!

The Orlando Sentinel actually had a detailed Sunrail article on their front page this morning, and frankly their numbers are so negative that they make the Sunrail website numbers sound glorious by comparison. Read Sunrail Bills May Beat Train to Station.

Seriously if only 4,300 people are going to even being riding Sunrail according to the State's own projections, why are we even bothering with it???

Sunrail sounds like a good idea until you start analyzing the facts. My take is that Sunrail is just another unbelieveably expensive government project that will have few users and waste billions of taxpayer dollars. I hope I'm wrong. I'd sure love to see Sunrail be successful. But as with just about everything else the government touches ... you get the drift.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

If you are a home buyer, it is the most most wonderful time of the year

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:08:45 -0600

For years, I've been telling potential home buyers and real estate investors that November and December is absolutely the best time of year to be buying properties.

There are actually 3 reasons why the end of the year is such a great time to buy:

(1) There is less competition. Fewer people buy homes during November and December because they are thinking more about the holidays. With Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and other religious holidays upon us many would be buyers are thinking more about shopping, traveling, holiday parties, school plays, and religious events than they are about buying a home.

(2) Sellers are often more motivated to sell. If a seller is willing to allow buyers, Realtors, and other people to traipse through their home during the holidays, they are often much more motivated than a typical seller during other times of the year.

(3) Tax incentives are often a motivating factor. Banks, asset managers, and even real estate investors, are motivated to get a property off their books before a tax year ends. Few banks want to let a non-performing asset sit on their books for yet another tax year. Same with motivated real estate investors. Sometimes bank owned REO and short sales will magically get approved even at a lowball price just to get them off the books and closed before the year ends.

If you pull out the Realtor stats from previous years, you will notice a pattern. Closed deals in December and January are almost always the lowest point for the year. (January sales were ones that went under contract 30 days earlier - December.) Some of the best deals I have purchased were done in November and December. In 2007 I bought an Orlando REO that was listed for $150,000 but the bank sold it to me in December for $97,000. Right now I am negotiating a contract to buy another property for $45,000 that should appraise for close to $100,000 - seller wants to go back up north and be there for the holidays.

Make sure to get your offer in ASAP. The end of the year is coming up on us fast. Central Florida properties are selling.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

New Central Florida job figures issued - more funny math

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:53:46 -0600

This morning's Orlando Sentinel had an interesting editorial about jobs created or saved by the $787 billion federal stimulus package. Take a read at the article for yourself End Fuzzy Math on Jobs.

The article mentions Lake County Florida where it was claimed 157 jobs were created/saved. After an investigation by Orlando Sentinel reporters, the true number was 42. So the figure was off by over 200% from what was claimed. Yikes.

My home county, Seminole County Florida, claimed 902 jobs created/saved. The Sentinel doesn't give the actual figure but it says the actual jobs were "less than half" of what was reported.

The response given to Sentinel reporters regarding why the figures were not verified correctly was "we only have so much time and energy." Typical excuse, but very sad especially considering that the agency overseeing all this is funded for the mostpart by .... drum roll .... your tax dollars.

Is it any wonder why my mantra has always been that the answer to growing our economy both locally and nationally is not re-distributing money from the taxpayers to preferred fat-cat entities (playing Robin Hood with your and my hard-earned money). The answer is to lower taxes, reduce regulation, and privatize most of the functions provided by our government. Government continues to prove over and over again that it is unaccountable and inefficient in EVERYTHING that it does.

Until the jobs start coming back, the Central Florida economy and the retail real estate buyers are not going to be there. How about a different stimulus? Put income taxes on hiatus for a few months, cut property tax millage rates by 20-30% across the board, reduce sales taxes by 1-2% (when I was kid sales taxes in FL were 4% - now they are 7% with little change in our standard of living), and reduce all these crazy fees. That would stimulate the economy immediately and would force governemnt to go on a signifcant diet.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Sad stories about foreclosures and real estate investing

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:24:55 -0600

A few months ago, one of my investment companies was served a summons. Apparently the person I had sold the house to back in 2004 was in foreclosure and there was some sort of defect in the notarization of the deed when I sold it to him. So they named my company in the foreclosure lawsuit in order to extinguish any possible title problem. About every few weeks now, the plaintiff's attorney sends me some correspondence in the mail regarding the status of the foreclosure. Looks like an auction is coming up soon on this one. I remember the house well. In fact the profit from rehabbing and selling that particular house went into remodeling the kitchen in my current home.

This morning I was digging through the MLS doing a regular search for specific investment properties. One of the homes that came up was a home that I owned for about 6 weeks back in 2005. I bought this home, installed a new roof on it and re-sold shortly thereafter. The market was hot then. The guy I sold it to was a fellow Realtor and owned a real estate school. This morning's MLS showed the home as an REO. How sad.

About a year ago, one of my old tenants stopped by my office. I had sold him the house he had rented from me. Sold it to him for a sky high price back in 2005. The closing was not a pretty one. His lender surprised him on the day of closing with a much higher monthly payment than he had expected. I told him at the closing that I didn't care if he bought or not. Don't feel that I'm pressuring you to buy. We can just stay as landlord/tenants. But he decided to move forward and truthfully I didn't feel comfortable about it, but it was a heck of a payday for me. He had stopped by my office to see if I could help his mother buy a townhome. He had just lost the home I sold him to a foreclosure and was looking to move in with mom. The auction had already happened so there isn't much I could do with the foreclosure home. Turns out his mom had marginal credit and couldn't get a loan. I apologized profusely to him for selling him the home, but he said that he was a big boy and it wasn't my fault.

Presently I know of 4 other homes that I have sold over the last few years that have gone through foreclosure. They were great investments for me at the time, but I guess everybody was making great investments back then. I've had my own share of bad investments since then. Seems like everything I bought during 2006 and 2007 turned into mud. Luckily no foreclosures though. And fortunately everything I've bought in 2008 and 2009 has at least made some profit - actually the last few have been fabulous. (I've learned to love sinkhole damaged houses.) The deals are out there. I'm headed out this afternoon to look at yet another cheapo home to wholesale for profit. Sign up for our hot property email list at www.SDRhouses.com if you want to see what we have to offer.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

We all have so much to be thankful for

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:50:13 -0600

Several people over the last few months have told me that they don't have anything to be thankful for this year. And I certainly cannot blame them for how they feel. No doubt times are tough and just about everyone is feeling a little bit pinched.

However there are still plenty of things to be thankful for. Many Americans are re-learning that monetary and tangible things truly are not that important. The important things are your health, your family and friends, and your faith. Even though some people have big concerns over where America is headed (and I am definitely one of them), America is still the greatest country in the world. Opportunity still abounds.

Sooner or later this economy will change. When it does, you need to have re-positioned yourself to take full advantage of it. Revamp your strategy, get some new education, re-connect to some old relationships that you haven't spoke with in a while. Make some changes. The new year will be here before you know it anyway and with that a chance at a fresh start. If you are going to a nice feast this Thanksgiving, make sure to invite someone that might not have much to eat or to celebrate. It might just be the pick me up that person needs.

Thank you to all of my family, friends, sales associates, and customers! May your holiday be truly blessed. Please have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Where investors can find the great real estate deals (and Realtors can find new business)

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:32:14 -0600

Although there are thousands of homes for sale in most real estate markets, it still seems that the good REOs sell quickly (often with multiple offers) and the short sales might make a good value for an owner occupant that is willing to wait, but are often a real challenge for investors to make any money. So where can someone that truly wants a great investment property find the deals?

Well below is a long list of ideas to put into place. These ideas are also a great place for Realtors looking to obtain new listings. Not all these ideas will work in every market and some may be out of date for certain marketplaces, but hopefully they will at least get your brain thinking.

Most of these ideas boil down to 2 types of properties - (1) properties with motivated owners that nobody knows are for sale, and (2) properties that others have passed over or that nobody wants for whatever reason. If you have any ideas you care to share, feel free to post them so we can all learn.

1. Place a daily/weekly newspaper ad

2. Place weekly/monthly ads in Pennysaver, local weekly city paper, HOA newsletter, church bulletin, school newsletter, magazines, etc.

3. Place an ad in the local Yellow pages - they even have targeted books just for certain cities

3. Place an ad in online classifieds - Craigslist, Kijiji, MerchantCircle, etc.

4. Create an internet website or blog

5. Search the MLS for junker properties

6. Search the MLS for expired and withdrawn listings

7. Search the MLS for old stale listings - listed for 90 days +

8. Bandit signs (little cheapo signs by the side of the road or nailed to a phone pole)

9. Drive neighborhoods looking for For Sale By Owners / FSBO's

10. Call for sale by owner ads in newspapers, Craigslist, other classifieds

11. Search / network on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Activerain for people looking to sell / buy

12. Contact landlords who are evicting a tenant

13. Contact landlords with properties for rent

14. Contact multi-family property owners - there are lots of tired landlords

15. Contact commercial property owners - there are lots of people looking to sell or close their business if they got the right offer

16. Pre-foreclosures, lis pendens lists

17. Foreclosure auctions and sheriff sales

18. HUD home auctions

19. Tax deed auctions

20. Ebay auctions, other private auctions

21. Contact probate properties and estate sales

22. Contact divorce forced sales

23. Properties with outstanding building, health code, or code enforcement violations

24. Fire, sinkhole, hurricane, earthquake damaged, or a similar niche properties

25. Absentee landlords and out of state owners

26. Networking with professional people - Realtors(r), attorneys, CPAs, surveyors, etc.

27. Networking with service providers - lawnmower service, mailman, pool service, pizza deliverers, contractors, etc.

28. Networking with your sphere of influence - hand out your business cards to everyone you know

29. Join a local networking group - investor association, chamber of commerce, Kiwanis club, garden club, etc.

30. Post ads with large employers, military bases, hospitals, relocation companies

31. Bird dogs (paying a bird dog fee to unlicensed people may be illegal in some states, so make sure to obey the law)

32. Property wholesalers, other investors

33. Outdoor ads - magnetic car sign, bus stop benches, shopping cart ads, billboards, taxi cabs

34. Clothing and accessories - I have embroidered shirts, baseball hats, magnetic calendars, ball point pens, etc. with my logo on them

35. Canvassing a neighborhood, talk to neighbors, door hangers/fliers

36. Radio and TV ads

37. Direct mail / postcards

38. Private money lenders or people holding seller financing that might consider selling their mortgage at a discount in lieu of avoiding foreclosure

39. People who have done a mortgage modification or had a foreclosure dismissed within the recent past - odds are they are still struggling

40. Property owners in bankruptcy

41. Property owners with tax liens, judgments, or construction liens recorded against them

42. The individual/company that owns the judgment or construction lien that might sell at a discount instead of trying to foreclose

43. Property owners with HOA or condo liens recorded against them

44. Drive neighborhoods looking for vacant homes, high weeds, etc.

45. Properties with title problems

46. Properties on state/county government lands available for sale list, government surplus

47. Properties that can be combined with others to make the whole parcel more valuable

48. Properties that can have the zoning or land use changed to make the parcel more valuable

49. Builders with excess inventory - homes and vacant lots for sale

50. Government entities like FDIC, SBA, USDA, VA, GSA, RICO, the IRS, U.S. Customs, your local state's department of revenue - all have properties for sale

51. Plenty more ideas ... be creative.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

The next wave of foreclosures is coming

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:05:25 -0600

There have been several articles over the last year about the next big wave of foreclosures coming down the pipeline. 60 Minutes did a whole documentary on this last year.

Today USA Today published another article discussing the backlog of foreclosures on the horizon caused by failed short sales, failed modifications, government moratoriums, etc. Another 7 million homes in the USA are destined to go into foreclosure over the upcoming months.

This article makes an interesting read: Another Wave of Foreclosure Looms.

Central Florida / Orlando gets hundreds of new foreclosure case filings every single week. So anybody that is telling you that "the recession is over" is simply kidding themselves. I hate to say it, but it sure looks like a tidal wave is on its way to shore in the near future. If you are in the real estate business you need to continue to be focusing on foreclosures, REOs, and short sales. They are going to be around for many years yet to come.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Orlando real estate statistics for October 2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:07:56 -0600

The Orlando real estate statistics for October 2009 have been reported by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. Here is a direct link to these stats. Below is a breakdown on the numbers. The stats are for Orange & Seminole County, Florida including Orlando, Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Casselberry, Lake Mary, Oviedo, and Sanford.

Inventory New Pendings Under Contract Expired Withdrawn Closed Days on Market

January 09 22,613 2282 3830 1377 1598 1050 103

Sept 2009 15,967 3858 8790 846 1014 2292 96

Oct 2009 15,743 3864 9050 924 646 2206 98

If you look at some of the graphs at the link above, you can really see how inventory has plummeted. It hovered around 26,000 properties during most of 2007 into early 2008. Then slowly started decreasing to where it is today. The inventory decrease does appear to have slowed. Most of this slowing has to do with a giant backlog of pending short sales which often take several months to actually close. From my own rough estimates, approximately 62% of the current pending contracts in metro Orlando are short sales.

The number of sold properties continues to be strong. Although sales were slightly less than in September, at a volume of 2206 they are still the highest they have been since August 2006. Actually in July 2009 we saw the first time in several years where the number of sold properties exceed the number of properties that didn't sell (expired + withdrawn).

Foreclosures still dominate the Orlando landscape. Roughly 20% of the sales in October were short sales while another 43% were bank owned REOs. Only 37% of the sales last month were not in foreclosure.

Prices are another story altogether the median price for October was $130,000 and the average price was $161,800. These are way down from just a year ago in October 2008 when they were at a median of $175,700 and $220,200. But talk to any good Realtor and they will tell you that just about any property priced under these median amounts will sell within a matter of days if not hours right now - unless the property is a piece of junk and is not desirable to most buyers.

The median price for bank owned REOs was $70,000, for short sales $125,000, and for non-foreclosure properties it was $185,000. This just goes to show the disparity between foreclosure prices versus non-foreclosure prices. Also many of the bank REOs are condominiums which are selling for unbelievably cheap prices right now.

I'm just glad to see all the activity. If you are interested in more detailed statistics for the Orlando real estate market or just wonder what your home is worth, feel free to contact me directly.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Question about getting approved by seller's loan officer for REO

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:10:27 -0600

Seems like many bank REO listings are requiring the buyer to get approved by the seller's chosen loan officer before they will entertain an offer. I can understand why they want to do this on a financing deal.

However, I am seeing this happen more and more often on cash deals - where the buyer can show a current bank statement with plenty of money to pay all cash for the property. Why would a loan officer need to talk to the buyer and pull their credit if the buyer is paying all cash? Anybody else experiencing this? Any way to get around it?

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Top 10 Things to Know about the Tax Credit Extension.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:54:59 -0600

Via Chris Brown | Florida's #1 FHA Mortgage Broker:

General Rules for Orlando Home Buyer Tax Credit Seekers:

A "first time home buyer" is defined as someone who has not owned a home in the last three years. If you are a "first-time home buyer", your tax credit will amount to 10% of the purchase price of your new home not to exceed $8,000.

A "long-time resident" is defined as someone who has lived in the same primary home for 5 out of the past 8 years. If you are a "long-time resident", your tax credit will amount to 10% of the purchase price of your new home not to exceed $6,500.

The tax credit does not need to be paid back if you continue living in the home as your primary residence for three years without selling it

The home must be purchased for less than $800,000 before May 1, 2010. If you sign a binding contract to purchase a home before May 1st, you would need to close on the transaction before July 1, 2010.

Single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples with incomes up to $225,000 qualify for the full tax credit

You cannot purchase the home from a related party like a spouse, direct ancestor, or direct lineal descendent (child or grandchild); however, you can still qualify for the credit if you purchase a property from siblings, nephews, nieces, and others

If you are married, both spouses must qualify for the credit

If more than one unmarried individual is buying the property, the credit can be split up among all the individuals who qualify. However, the total credit taken cannot exceed $8,000 (or $6,500 for "long-time residents"). Alternatively, if only one of the unmarried buyers qualifies for the credit based on their income or past home ownership status, the individual who qualifies for the credit can claim the full credit.

The credit applies even if you have co-signers on your mortgage loan

The credit applies to 1-4 unit homes as long as you live in one of the units as your primary residence - you could live in one unit and rent out the others

How does the tax credit work? A tax credit is kind of like a gift certificate that you can use to pay your taxes - it reduces your income tax bill on a dollar for dollar basis. Imagine paying your bill at IRS Restaurant, and then later getting an IRS Restaurant gift certificate. Normally, you would need to go back to IRS Restaurant and buy more food in order to use your new gift certificate. But what if IRS Restaurant allowed you to just turn in your gift certificate for cash? That's how the home buyer tax credit works! All you need to do is file a form with the IRS after you buy your new home and they will send you a refund check for $8,000 (or $6,500) - just like the example of IRS Restaurant that allows you to exchange your gift certificate for cash! Remember though, you'll receive the $8,000 (or $6,500) from the IRS AFTER you purchase your new home, so you cannot use the funds to help with your down payment.

Chris is Florida's #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the many leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, the newest contributor to Lenderama and has been recently featured on Fox35 News.

Chris can be found at Orlando FHA Loans, Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com, or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210

Click Here to Apply Online

Not sure how to connect? Find out at FindChrisBrown.com

A video created by a good friend, Dustin Hughes. If you need a mortgage in Oregon - he is your guy... need one in FL - I would be honored to help!

Chris Brown

The FHA Mortgage Pro

that FHA Mortgage Pros go to

when they need an FHA Mortgage Pro.

Orlando FHA Loans | MortgageChiliBlog.com.

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com

Question about getting approved by seller's loan officer

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:12:53 -0600

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Rob Arnold - Your full service and investor friendly Realtor ® in Orlando and Central Florida.

407-389-7318 / 1-877-389-7318 www.SDRhouses.com www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com