Great Bungalow just hit the market for sale in Avondale.  Within 24 hours of pushing the big green GO button on our marketing machine, we had already generated 4 showings on this excellent home.

Top 6 Reasons to See This Avondale Home Before it's Sold

  1. Location: This home sits right in the middle of what most consider the best location in Avondale!  Just 1 block from the River, 2 blocks from the Shops of Avondale.
  2. Lifestyle: Walk to one of the small family diners for breakfast on Saturday morning, or meet your buddies for drinks and dinner at one of the posh Avondale restaurants.  In my opinion, your lifestyle is defined by what is most easily accessible to your home.  This Avondale location offers amenities!
  3. Move in Condition: As Avondale…

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  1. The Jacksonville Real Estate market will continue to improve.
    • Improve means more sales, it does not mean increase in prices.
  2. Jacksonville real estate prices continue to decline.
    • Less declines in the low $100k - $200k range  (this price point is HOT!)
    • Faster and more declines in the $300k+ range
    • As unemployment in Jacksonville currently remains one of the highest in the country, and Jacksonville being one of the most over built and biggest price bubbles in the country, I don't believe we are out of the woods yet.
  3. Supply of houses for sale stays high.
    • Early spring to mid summer, I anticipate a flood of new listings based on many of my contacts.
    • Foreclosures are widely noted to be resuming and will start hitting…

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Wells Fargo Short Sale in Jacksonville FL

Heron's Landing Condos are near the corner of Hodges and Beach Blvd.  Gated community with a clubhouse and pool, this has been an excellent investment opportunity with it's proximity to UNF, the beach, and the price.

At $82,000, this 3 bed, 2 bath END UNIT, TOP FLOOR condo is available for a CASH ONLY purchase.

Why Cash Only?  Most lenders and government backed mortgages will not lend money against many condo communities for a number of reasons.  The leading reason for most newer/affordable condo communities:  percentage of investors to primary residents too high.  That's right, if the smart money is in, the government is out....go figure.

These sell fast, so if you have interest, please give our…

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Another Successful Bank of America Short Sale in Jacksonville FL

2 Loans on this one:  1st Bank of America, 2nd Regions Bank

I do not like selling homes with Tenants in the property.  I almost always require that they move out before listing, but occasionally I have to bend a little.

The main reasons I dislike Tenants occupying a home when  short selling:

  • Short sales are difficult & add an additional party into the transaction, one that has no tie to making the sale work, and the difficulty just multiplied.
  • Showings are inconvenient for anyone living in the house.  Tenants do not like being inconvenienced.
  • Houses must maintain model like appearance when selling......remember, your house is in a competition with ALL the other houses on…

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#1 reason for short sales taking so long:  Seller Documents

SPEED!  It's what we want in a short sale, and it's the #1 killer of short sale deals.

After a short sale goes under contract and gets submitted to the bank for processing, we work behind the scenes to keep the buyer's side updated with all the latest and greatest news from the short sale process.  My assistant spends hours a day on just this one task, and is in my opinion, one of the most important tasks in the short sale:  Communication.

As the updates trickle in from the short sale lender, they usually request updated documents or additional documents.  The typical request:

  • Bank statements
  • Pay stubs
  • Arms length addendum
  • Specific terms added to listing agreement or…

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Just the facts:

  • Florida top 5 states for having highest share of mortgage delinquency (reported by LPS)
  • 44% of mortgages in Florida under water (reported by CoreLogic)
  • 44% of mortgaged home owners in Florida = 1,900,000 home owners

Just opinion:

  • That's a lot of people who can't move for a better job, worse job, family illness, etc unless they walk away, short sale, or bankrupt
  • There are entire neighborhoods built within the bubble years where almost everyone is upside down
  • No neighborhood or area of town is excluded despite the residents and local REALTORS insistence that "this neighborhood hasn't been affected by the housing market"
  • Not all those 1.9mm want to move....so they are only underwater for now.
  • The values of…

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CR 210 Short Sale in St Johns County - Stonehurst

More house for the money, great schools, every amenity possible.  These are reasons so many residents of Jacksonville choose to move just a little south to County Road 210 in St Johns County.

This home is currently priced at an aggressive $159,000, and I anticipate it selling quickly.  It does need a little TLC, maybe some new paint, but otherwise this home is ready to move in.

4 bedrooms and 2 baths with an open floorplan and very large kitchen.  The backyard isn't huge, but it is private and has a nice screened in Lanai.

If I were buying this home, I'd probably spend some money on landscaping the backyard to make it a retreat.  A wood pergola and some pavers like the one pictured below would…

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Regions Bank Short Sale Success in Jacksonville Florida

Investor owned Short Sale!

Investors of real estate often get the short end of the stick with lenders, and short sales are no different.  Even though investors buy up all the bank's unwanted foreclosures, lenders tend to have a love hate relationship with them.

This short sale in Palencia was an investor owned property that had to be sold or given back the bank.  The investor decided to attempt and work with the bank to short sale the property.

As with any short sale, the owner should expect to help pay some of the forgiven amount back via a promissory note or cash at closing.  That's just part of short selling today, unless you are truly on your last dime......which very few people are.

…

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Bank United Short Sale Success

This short sale gave the Short Sale Attorney a work out.  We sold it once, and the buyer's got cold feet.  We sold it a second time, and the buyer lost their financing ability after we had the approval.  Third time was the charm!

Bank United is relatively quick at processing a short sale, but they are a dirty player.  As part of their requirement for short sale approval, they required a 1% of the purchase price real estate fee be paid to Green River Realty Group LLC???  Who the hell is that?

Green River Realty Group LLC?  Bank United's contracted robbers?

And guess where that money was paid from......directly from my pocket.  And guess what would happen if I didn't agree..........no short sale.

Is that…

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In 2007 Jacksonville had 7300 licensed real estate agents who were members of the local MLS board.  That's a lot of local Jacksonville REALTORS running around.  Those numbers do not include all the builder and developer agents who were not active as "general real estate agents" as they were just representing the builder or developer.  Therefore, they did not need access to the MLS.  Either way, that's a lot of licensed agents!

Today, there are approximately 1900 less.  According to our local MLS, we have 5400 REALTORS locally.

Annual dues are hitting the mailboxes of those 5400 Jacksonville REALTORS, so I'd bet we have a few less starting in 2012.

Of the 5400, I'd say less than 20% of those are full time agents.  I'm sure there are some stats out…

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