Bonita Springs Fl Real Estate » Buyer Tips

Are There Assessments & Wetlands San Carlos Estates?

chrisgriffith — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:36:23 +0000

Wetlands Studies, Special Assessments on Vacant Land

At the time of publication, most of the properties in San Carlos Estates have assessments for the new infrastructure. If your mission is to figure out if a property has a special assessment for the new road paving, water and sewer you can check the Lee County Tax Collector website – www.LeeTC.com.

From the menu across the website choose – Property Tax>Search Records.

Select the option to search either by account number, name, address, personal ID number. Official Records Search.
After the correct property “real property information” page loads for the real estate for which you’re investigating scroll down the page to the link titled “tax detail”.
The tax detail explains where the money collected in the taxes, in essence, gets spent. Ad-valorem taxes include the school district, public library, city of Bonita Springs, mosquito control.

There is a section below ad-valorem tax called “Non-Ad Valorem Assessments” and that is where the special assessments, CDD’s, road assessments, utility assessments are located.

Just like buying a home or condo, vacant land, vacant acreage and vacant lots in Lee County, Florida require inspections to make sure the land is not encumbered with wetlands. An environmental study, environmental audit or wetlands report can be ordered with a representative from the State of Florida at this web address:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/south/ERP/LeeDeterminations/LeeCounty.htm.

The vacant lot must be staked and marked for the wetland inspection to be performed properly and may be required by the county or even the independent wetland inspector. This may require a new survey to be ordered on the vacant real estate prior to the environmental inspection taking place.

There are also independent, wetland and environmental inspection services which can be retained to investigate real state for wetlands or protected species of animals/wildlife. An example of an independent wetland inspector would be Mike Ramsey of Ramsey Inc. 239-564-1660 www.ramseyinc.net has more information on wetland inspections and environmental inspections hired from the private sector.

First Time Home Buyer Rodeo | Bonita Springs Real Estate

chrisgriffith — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:00:13 +0000

Bonita Springs Real Estate and First Time Home Buyers

There’s never been a better time to buy a home … unless the buyer is financing the purchase. It’s not because it is difficult to finance real estate or that the banks aren’t lending, it’s because the entry level real estate market is chock full of cash buyers and the super affordable inventory is gone.

The Southwest Florida real estate market can remove that big scarlet “drowning in inventory” sign it’s been wearing around its neck for the last few years. The original deluge of foreclosures and short sales which flooded the area has, for the most part, been absorbed. For the record, I did say original deluge. I don’t want the sticks and bricks fatalists to have absolutely nothing to wring their hands over.

At any rate, one would have to actually be a first time home buyer or someone with the ambition to get in on affordable, entry level home ownership to feel the pressure. All of the starry eyed dreaming and careful planning aside, the first time home buyer of today is entering a combat zone trying to purchase a home these days.

Today’s successful first time home buyer is always prepared, has already found an experienced mortgage broker and a dedicated real estate agent who can drop everything morning, noon or night to get them into the latest listing that just hit the market. These buyers have been prequalified to purchase, been saving their dollars, tidied their credit and set off for the hunt, only to start placing offer, after offer, after offer and not getting awarded the contract.

Those who decide to live the American dream through the joys of home ownership can barely catch a break if they’re financing their purchase in the entry level market. How could that be?

Cash talks and financers walk … to the next available property that will, like the others before it, hit the market, receive multiple offers and call for highest and best offer by 5:00 p.m. The contract will likely be awarded to a cash buyer about 81% of the time if the purchase price is under $100,000 and 61% of the time priced under $150,000. Pretty tough odds, huh?

Wide eyed, first time home buyers become frustrated and if they’re not on the proverbial home buying band wagon when they start dabbling in the home buying arena, they get there quickly after a couple of smack downs by home sellers who step right over them for a buyer with cold, hard cash in hand.

Generally, cash buyers serve a very important place in the real estate market. They’re the buyers who can purchase real estate that is not financeable or the damaged and derelict properties needing extensive repairs. Unfortunately, there just isn’t a whole bunch of affordable real estate to go around, again, so they’re able to squeeze in and make the deals.

Besides digging up a cash benefactor there isn’t a big secret first time home buyers should know to help them get awarded the contract on the next property they place an offer on except speed, perseverance and luck. Luck, in this entry level home buying climate, is simply when thorough planning and preparation meets opportunity. So, if the goal is to buy a home in southwest Florida in the entry level real estate market, get your home buying team in order, plan your purchase, prepare for the financing, search every web portal and keep finding and quickly offering on new real estate opportunities until good fortune shines on you.

On a separate note, this would probably be an excellent time for someone to come up with a first time home buyer’s version of the St. Joseph statue.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

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SWFL Real Estate Values and the Economists

chrisgriffith — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:42:20 +0000

The Truth About That 10% Real Estate Value Increase

Did you know that the second Tuesday of every month all of the real estate agents of southwest Florida show up at a secret location, one minute before midnight, to formulate a plan to manipulate the entire real estate industry? Well neither did I. Apparently, I didn’t get the invitation.

Believe it or not, there really isn’t a huge, clandestine plan to dupe the general public into buying real estate they don’t want or need. The market will and is ironing itself out. It’s true.

It shouldn’t be that hard to believe that a down real estate market wouldn’t last for forever. Not that any consumer shouldn’t be cautious and do their homework as they’re preparing to buy or sell real estate. Those same economists throwing around that projected ten percent value increase figure have been “off” before.

The fact of the matter is that the now watered down phrase “real estate is local” is true and has never been more important. The answer to the state of your real estate, not my real estate, not your friend’s real estate, has been sitting pretty, all this time, right there in the local numbers. All that most heard from the report last week was that real estate values in Naples would be up by “as much as ten percent” by the end of the year. It’s plausible given the market conditions but not a definite for every single real estate owner.

It’s sort of like the surgeon general announcing that the average life expectancy in the United States has been extended to the age of seventy-eight and then someone you know or love passes at the age of fifty-three. Rip off or reality? It was an average and unfortunately we all know someone out there who is going to draw a shorter straw than someone else in life expectancy and in the real estate market.

So, what’s a home owner or a home buyer to do? Get to the bottom of the numbers. Either figure out how to calculate the numbers yourself or find a real estate agent who is capable of calculating inventory absorption rates for you, for the area in which you live or are thinking of purchasing real estate. A simple calculation can tell you where the market stands and likely which direction the real estate values are moving.

The reality is that there are still a few communities out there with excessive inventory. I attended a meeting in a bundled golf community where the manager of the community boasted that only six percent of the real estate behind the gates of the community was currently listed for sale. Six percent sounds optimistic but given the rate of closed sales recorded in that particular community there was fifteen months of standing inventory. Meaning that theoretically, if no other real estate were listed in that community, ever again, it would take approximately fifteen months to sell off the existing inventory.

Unless there is a surprise run on real estate in that particular community it could be speculated that there is a strong possibility that they are not going to enjoy “up to a ten percent increase” in property values across the board when the New Year rings in. There may be a particularly popular floor plan experiencing a surge in sales that will, however.

It takes drilling down and running the numbers level by level from the county, from the city, to the neighborhood, to the street or even to the floor plan to determine the inventory, the direction of that particular local market and a reasonable projection of that market in the near future … that’s the local in “real estate is local” and the truth about which side of that projected “up to ten percent value increase” your real estate is currently positioned and where it might be at the end of the year.

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Negotiating Real Estate Closing Costs

chrisgriffith — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:12:00 +0000

Negotiating the X Factor in Real Estate

The last ditch grasp … as long as they pay closing cost. It never fails, sooner or later there is a negotiation for real estate volleying back and forth and one party will agree with the condition of “as long as they pay closing costs.”

The average consumer usually doesn’t fully understand what the closing costs actually are and how it is or is not going to affect their bottom line. They just know that closing costs are going to cost them money and they don’t want to pay any more money than they have to.

Why a consumer would be going into a purchase or a sale without knowing what their bottom line and closing expenses will be is a mystery. The real estate agents involved have hopefully closed a transaction or two and should be familiar enough to create some sort of an expense or a seller’s net sheet. If that doesn’t happen or the agent can’t or didn’t do it, the selected title agent can even mock up a draft settlement statement which would probably be within a fist full of dollars of the actual bottom line after the final prorations are calculated.

Not knowing those costs is the X factor that I’ve seen more than a few buyers and sellers try to negotiate away over this last fantabulous real estate selling season. From the perspective of being on both sides of the “X” equation at one time or another I can share that everyone thinks of closing costs differently.

There have been buyers who have finally agreed to a final price negotiation with the stipulation that the seller pays closing costs. Now, the contract indicates that the seller was paying for the owner’s title policy and the documentary stamps on deed, what’s left after those two larger fees are a few minor recording fees, title settlement fee and prorated taxes and HOA dues, if applicable. All of which are relatively minor expenses. It’s almost as though they didn’t know what costs or the value of those costs that they were attempting to negotiate away. If someone had asked the buyers to place a dollar figure on the actual cash amount that that negotiation tactic would have benefited them, they probably would have not been able to answer.

There have been circumstances when sellers have also tried to negotiate the same position and demand that the buyers pay all closing cost. It’s like this game of tag … you’re it, you pay the fees. What if the fee isn’t that large? Does the seller realize they are playing chicken with a buyer over a few hundred bucks in closing costs when the monthly holding costs for the property shadow that figure. What’s the point if it fractures the negotiation? If they stick to their guns they could potentially cost the deal and waste hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in carrying costs while essentially fighting over pennies in the grand scheme of things.

Being aware of what the customary closing expenses are going to be before you start negotiating is important. Besides knowing your own bottom line you really need to know if there is any leverage or disadvantage in who is or isn’t paying for specific closing costs should the other party throw the X factor into the mix.

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What Happens to Your Real Estate Offer After You Sign It?

chrisgriffith — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:30:54 +0000

Where Does the Real Estate Offer Go?

What happens to an offer after signing it? It’s a fair question to ask of whomever is helping you write the offer, whether it’s your real estate attorney or your real estate agent. If your attorney is involved they’re generally concerned with making sure you’re legally protected. They’ll also track specific time frames after the contract is executed and advise you of action items required on your part that involve inspections, applying for mortgages, etc.

What happens to the purchase offer you’ve just signed after you push away from the table? I wonder if many buyers know or ask for those details. To whom is the offer being presented? How is it being delivered? Does your agent know anything about the seller, the seller’s agent, recently received offers or past offers in general?

It all sound like basic fundamentals but given that I’ve received not one, but two contracts this week, via email with no phone call or even a basic question or two about the property, the seller’s objectives or the tenant’s lease, it makes me wonder how often this happens to buyers. Little did the enthusiastic buyers realize they’ve mustered the courage and signed on the dotted line only to have their offer get rolled up and essentially tied to a balloon and released into the great blue yonder.

If nobody knew the offer was coming, whether it’s via email, fax or pony express, valuable time is tick, tick, ticking away. This is where sellers really learn to really appreciate that twenty four hour response time they’ve been given to jumping through the flaming hoops. (Yes, that is sarcasm. I’m fluent in it.) They especially enjoy it when they live in a different time zone or on a different continent or if there are multiple parties involved who need to be consulted before an agreement or counter offer can be made.

If you’re a buyer who is placing an offer to purchase real estate, there are a few questions you need to ask:

1. Ask if your agent has spoken with the listing agent prior to preparing an offer to find out important information such as which closing dates could benefit the seller or to ask for property disclosures. You did review the disclosures first, right? Good, that means you signed them and send them back with the offer.

2. Get a copy of your contract and a list of important time frames, response times for both parties involved in the contract, escrow deposit dates and home inspection deadlines.

3. Ask for some sort of acknowledgement from your real estate agent that the offer was actually presented and is now in the hands of the seller, the seller’s real estate agent or their legal counsel for due consideration. Whether it’s simply an acknowledgement of a conversation about the contract or an email response receipt to make sure the seller’s side knows you’ve placed an offer.

4. Instruct your agent to ask to be notified immediately if your offer becomes involved a multiple offer situation.

Real estate 101 – The great delivery. Deliver the offer and actually let the seller’s agent know it’s been delivered.

Coming soon: Real estate 102 – The bridge to nowhere. How to explain to a buyer’s agent that if they want to (imagine finger quotes) “bridge the gap” on an offer fifty percent off list price, someone is going to need to sell a kidney and trust me, it’s not me.

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Buyers Remorse When Purchasing Real Estate

chrisgriffith — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:18:17 +0000

Bonita Springs Real Estate – Buyer’s Remorse

Sometimes it’s just the quiet, the way too quiet that is the first sign. Calls aren’t being returned or some type of required, follow up documentation isn’t being produced in a timely fashion. In this day and age of nearly constant contact it doesn’t take long to figure out what’s going on. For whatever reason, the buyers go radio silent; no calls, no email, not text. Finally, the light comes on and everyone realizes that someone is experiencing a little bit of regret for the purchase.

Usually, the buyers have found their dream home or dream condo, negotiated their deal to an executed contract and then the little voices start injecting doubt into their thoughts. Did I over pay? Is now the right time to buy? They just read xyz about the economy in the news. Whatever the reason, regret is a powerful emotion and when a buyer has a change of heart the last thing they should do is to start sending calls to voicemail.

Ignoring the situation doesn’t make it go away. I’m not sure why anyone would just pretend their executed contract “just never happened” when they’re in a potentially, vulnerable legal pickle. It is a legal issue, after all, and precious days and hours that go by are being wasted. Rest assured, the sellers aren’t going to forget they negotiated a contract and accidentally sell the real estate to someone else absolving a buyer of their responsibilities.

Unfortunately, at one point or another I’ve had the distinct displeasure of experiencing buyer’s remorse from both the buyer’s side and seller’s side of the transaction. While it’s never fun to be in the middle, there’s work to be done and the matters need to be handled as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

Regardless of how badly a buyer feels there are time sensitive issues that need to be addressed regarding the transaction. Some of the time-sensitive issues actually protect the buyer or could allow them the opportunity to excuse themselves from the contract without any or with little legal or financial consequences.

If you’re a buyer experiencing remorse, face reality and be honest with your real estate agent and your real estate attorney. This is a business transaction so learn and understand the facts about your contract, including any contingencies. There are a variety of clauses that may be in the purchase and sale agreement which could offer a buyer the ability to cancel the contract. For example, short sales or bank involved purchases are contracted as-is with the right to inspect … and walk away if the results are not satisfactory to the purchaser. Also, if the subject property is condominium there are timeframes for review and acceptance of condominium association documents, budgets, frequently asked questions, rules and regulations.

If a seller is within their legal rights to hold a buyer’s feet and their escrow deposit to the fire they should but time is also money and sellers often benefit from moving on, when necessary, to find a willing buyer without shaky legs. Of course, it’s never pleasant for seller’s to be in this position. The fact of the matter is that if a transaction is going to fall apart, it’s better for all concerned that it happens up front and not weeks or months into the transaction wasting valuable marketing time and costing the seller’s additional holding costs that can never be recouped.

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Asking For Concessions–Renegotiating The Contract

chrisgriffith — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:26:35 +0000

Renegotiate the Real Estate Contract – Concessions

It doesn’t matter what side of the transaction you’re on sooner or later the question, “what can we ask for” is going to come up. It’s the nature of the game, human nature even; to question, to negotiate or renegotiate as a real estate transaction evolves from initial offer to a closed sale.

Buyers and sellers of real estate frequently ask the same question just from different perspectives; “Can we ask for that?” and “Can they really ask for that?”

The short answer is that you can ask for anything and anything can be asked of you. By Jove, you can even ask for a vintage G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu Grip action figure to be delivered to the closing while you’re signing the settlement papers if that’s what you really, really want. You might actually get it if the market can bear it. What the market can bear is the big gray area the consumers are trying to feel their way through.

What a buyer or seller can ask for is more or less commensurate with the volatility or stability of the real estate market. Remember back to the bubble years when new real estate would hit the market and collect a couple of offers within a few hours. If a buyer asked for any special concessions they would have been kindly been left to go pound salt.

Locally, we’ve been absorbing a lot of excess real estate inventory and what the market will bear has been quietly shifting. The list prices that the real estate market will bear are changing and so are the demands that both sellers and buyers request during negotiation or attempt to renegotiate after the fact.

Not long ago a buyer was visually inspecting a property which had been purchased sight unseen. The buyer decided that road noise was far louder than he had imagined it would be. The buyer felt that the noise was so disruptive, in fact, that the only way he could see moving forward with the purchase was if the sellers included all of their magical, sound deadening furniture in the sale. Now, a few years ago it might have tilted in the buyers favor to pull a last minute run on chattel but we’ve turned a point in that particular community and price point where there wasn’t a list of standing real estate like there was a few years ago. As a matter of fact, there were even a few prospective buyers waiting to see if this particular sale stayed together.

Years ago a seller may have simply conceded to ensure the sale because offers were few and far between. The market has now recovered enough that it would not jeopardize the property closing if the seller held the course. This little game of chicken ended with the buyer proceeding to close and the sellers moved their furniture to their new home.

Most commonly, renegotiating the original purchase price and value adjustments for major inspection repairs can pop up as a transaction evolves. A real estate transaction, after all, can be a low appraisal or inspection discovery away from a significant value or price change in the home. It’s the market that will determine whether a buyer can successfully ask for and be awarded concessions or whether the seller will accept or deny them.

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Timing The Real Estate Market and Last Year’s Prices

chrisgriffith — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:02:40 +0000

Bonita Springs Real Estate Values … Up, Up and Away

When buyers of real estate began cautiously moving back into the southwest Florida real estate market when there was plentiful inventory at rock bottom prices there were skeptics questioning whether it was the right time to buy. Certainly, the communities which were experiencing excess inventory, sometimes decades of inventory, were not without their challenges. There were the brave who decided that it was the time; the time to buy, the time to plan their retirement, the time to upsize, downsize or get off of the sidelines and back into the market.

The thing about a down real estate market is that there are always folks who are trying to gauge the bottom, the precise moment when prices will go no lower and inventory is absorbed to reasonable or near balanced levels. It’s nearly impossible if not difficult to do. It’s like watching the pendulum in a grandfather clock swinging and clapping when it is precisely at the exact bottom. If a person clapped slightly before or after the exact, centered bottom of the pendulum swing, would they still not be close enough to get the majority of the full swing of the pendulum? If there was a room full of people, maybe there was one who, because they clapped in the right place at the right time, appeared to time it perfectly.

There’s safety in numbers. With the unit sales we’ve been experiencing we’ve sold off a lot of inventory. It’s brought in a new wave of buyers who have now found their confidence in the real estate market and are out looking for their bargain real estate. There is no denying that there are still great deals out there. The key is that the buyers of today need to be looking for their own deal and not a deal they heard about, whether it’s fact or fiction.

This week I received a phone call from a buyer looking for an opportunity to purchase and possibly rent until they’re ready to move in. I ran a few scenarios for the complex he was interested in and shared with him the last few closed sale prices and the fact that while there’s always something that pops on from time to time there were no units on the market in the entire complex right now.

This fella seemed taken aback by the pricing, which was still a value compared to many other “like kind” communities in the area. He then said, “I am looking for a deal just like you found for Mike.”

What this buyer didn’t know was the truth about Mike’s deal. Mike was out looking for real estate to pick up at a value when it wasn’t cool to buy southwest Florida real estate. He was fortunate to be purchasing that time. He essentially clapped at precisely the bottom of the pendulum swing. Mike didn’t tell you that he almost backed out of the deal until he was shown in great detail, why his purchase had such great potential, what the inventory and absorption rates were for this particular price point and housing complex and most importantly how much our market had improved.

It’s really difficult for some consumers to believe that conditions have improved and that prices have actually gone up in some areas and price points. I just doubled checked Mikes purchase price against recent closed sales in his complex. First, there are still no units available and second, due to lack of inventory the last few sales have each inched up in price. The last closed sale price was 13.75% higher than the price that Mike’s purchased at.

There are some really great values out there but capturing an identical deal to something that happened last year may not be realistic at this point. At this time, we just don’t have the excess inventory that was responsible for creating the low prices. You had to know it wasn’t going to last, right?

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What are Reserves For Replacement?

chrisgriffith — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Condo Budgets and Reserves For Replacement

As I trotted through this neighborhood in Bonita Bay, I snapped a picture of what “reserves for replacement” buys condo owners. That quarterly condo fee not only includes basic maintenance such as lawn service, pool service, upkeep of security lighting and such, it also includes small amounts that go into reserves or reserves for replacements.

What is reserves for replacement cover? There are a few large ticket items that the reserves savings is meant to cover such as roof replacement, parking lot/street replacement and swimming pool replacement or resurfacing. Instead of condominium home owners being hit with a surprise, large special assessment when the roofs are in need of replacing, there is a savings built up over the life of the roof specifically to cover the expense of roof replacement.

Reserves for replacement are a very important item when a buyer is looking to finance a condominium purchase, as well. With the finance climate in the condition it is currently in, lenders are asking for more money down (loan to value) to balance the risk they feel financing a condo exposes them to. When a consumer decides to purchase a condo and finance it, the lender will send a condo questionnaire to the homeowner association. One of the many questions asked is what is the balance of the reserves. The lenders, in an effort to reduce their risk should the condominium complex be in the stage of life where significant repairs to the common areas are warranted.

If you’re interested in seeing the sorts of questions asked regarding condo questionnaires and reserves for replacement, take a look at this .pdf: An actual Condominium Questionnaire.

Which Bonita Springs Real Estate Brokerage is Best?

chrisgriffith — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:10:17 +0000

How To Measure Real Estate Agents and Brokerages

What do you mean you’re not with Coldwell Banker real estate? I was sitting in a listing presentation interview when the home owner asked that question. Why he thought I was with that particular real estate brokerage, I’ll never know. I’ve never been with that brokerage in my twelve plus years of being a Bonita Springs real estate agent.

It sort of surprised me that he seemed so shocked. He thought he had carefully chosen three or four real estate agents from different Bonita Springs real estate brokerages in an attempt to find the best agent. Little did he, or most consumers, realize that that real estate agents are independent contractors who merely have their license under the brokerage “umbrella”.

Most accomplished real estate agents run their own careers with little to no input from the broker or the real estate brokerage. We run our own websites, we control our own transactions, we service our own listings. What is required of the agent by the brokerage is to follow their rules, account for paperwork and occasionally make sure they obtain any mandatory addendums required by the brokerage such as the Defective Chinese Drywall Addendum.

There is good and bad in every business, including real estate. The best real estate agents are just that, the best. The worst real estate agents are probably the worst … or just having a bad day. The brokerage they work for often is irrelevant.

To put it into perspective, a real estate consumer could call five agent from the same brokerage and be please with some and not like the others. It’s about the the agent, the person; their work ethic, their web presence, their professionalism, attention to detail, experience, and their years of cumulative work knowledge and battle scars

The logo doesn’t make the real estate agent better. After all, you could take a so-called green horn real estate agent in a brokerage with a great reputation and not get the results you were expecting because it’s about the individual agent the overwhelming majority of the time. It didn’t really matter what brokerage I was with when that home owner was interviewing me. It just mattered that I did what I said and performed above his expectations.

If you’re interested in reading more tips for sellers of Bonita Springs real estate, visit the category titled: Seller Tips