South Florida Real Estate Blog - Updates & Realty News

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According to Remodeling Magazine’s 2010-2011 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report, nine out of the top 10 most cost-effective projects (based on value recouped) are exterior replacement projects. Here are the four most cost-effective exterior replacement projects:

1. Steel entry door replacement. This project returned the most money, with an estimated 102.1 percent of cost recouped when the SE Florida homes were resold. It’s the only project in this year’s report that is expected to return more than the cost.

2. Midrange garage door replacement. This is the first year this project ranked high enough to make it into the report. It’s expected to recoup 89.9 percent of costs. According to the report, a “midrange” price for a garage door replacement is about $1,200.

3. Siding replacement. This project is expected to return more than 70 percent of costs. The most cost-effective siding project was upscale fiber-cement siding replacement, recouping 80 percent of costs.

4. Window replacement. This project ranked the same as siding replacement with a return of more than 70 percent of costs. Covered, upscale vinyl window replacements were expected to recoup the most with a 72.6 percent return upon resale of SE Florida homes.

According to the 2010-2011 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report, replacement projects usually outperform remodel and addition projects in resale value because they are among the least expensive and contribute to curb appeal.

Since resale value can vary by region, it's smart for owners of SE Florida homes to work with a SE Florida real estate agent through the remodeling and improvement process. An agent can provide insight into projects in his or her neighborhoods that will recoup the most when the owners are ready to sell.

Want help identifying the improvement projects that will recoup the most value when you sell your home? Give us a call today at 407-876-5771.

Energy efficiency and other aspects of environmentally-friendly living are very important to today’s home buyers. As a homeowner who wants to sell your property quickly and for as much as possible, it’s crucial to highlight the green elements of your SE Florida home for sale.

Your home may have more eco-friendly features than you realize, or you may be able to inexpensively add them. Here are a few ways to appeal to eco-conscious buyers:

• Highlight energy-efficient features. What energy-saving systems and appliances do you have in your home? Take an inventory of your home and identify items such as low-emittance windows, furnace or air conditioner with a high-efficiency rating, programmable thermostats, solar/wind/geo-thermal elements for the home or pool, improved insulation or a tankless water heater. Add these features to the marketing materials for your SE Florida home for sale.
• Publicize health benefits. Does your home have high efficiency air filters which remove indoor air pollutants? Did you use low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint which reduces problems with allergies and chemical sensitivities? What about eco-friendly flooring such as low-VOC carpets, cork or reclaimed wood which do not release chemicals? Mention these features and their associated health benefits.
• Promote natural elements. Consider the functional natural elements you have inside and outside your home. Natural lighting coming in through windows or skylights. Strategic placement of trees to provide natural shading. Mature trees or shrubs, vegetable or flower gardens and fruit trees. Eco-friendly gardens and lawn grown without the use of harmful pesticides. Effective use of cross ventilation to cool your home when the windows are open. Use of plants to reduce soil erosion. Promote these elements to your buyers.
• Advertise water conservation. You may be surprised how inexpensive it is to add water-saving features to your home. Shop for water-saving toilets, shower heads, dishwashers and washing machines. Plant landscaping that doesn’t require extensive watering. Buy a rain barrel to collect rain water for use in garden or landscaping. Be sure to advertise these water- and money-saving benefits.

In your marketing campaign, you may also want to remind potential buyers that purchasing an existing home is greener than having a new home built. That’s because it does not require the energy or materials needed to construct a new home.

If you’d like to put your SE Florida home up for sale, you’ll get the results you want from my proven marketing system. For more information about my system, give us a call today at 407-876-5771.

Today’s turbulent real estate market means the days of selling Miami homes without any planning or preparation are a distant memory for most people. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket, because there is tons of competition and buyers are not hunting Miami homes in a hurry like they once were. To sell your house quickly, staging and well-thought-out marketing plans are now necessities — not luxuries.

Do you know how to best present your property? What are the most effective ways to get buyers in the door? Using the tips and techniques below, you can begin to emerge from your rabbit hole and quickly move on to your next home with as much money in your pocket as possible.

Selling techniques for Miami homes:

• Price it Right – No amount of marketing or staging will help if your property is overpriced. For most people, it’s hard to look at their home objectively. Compare it to other properties for sale in your neighborhood, and take into account square footage, upgrades, location, and amenities, as well as, current market trends.

· Develop a Marketing Plan – You have to decide the best and most cost-effective way to get potential buyers in your house. Rarely is a newspaper ad or an Internet posting enough. Today’s competitive real estate environment requires more aggressive techniques which includes everything from social media marketing to prompt follow-up chats with potentially interested buyers.

· Stage your Home – You want your home to appear its best every time a potential buyer comes to see it. If buyers see dirt and stains, they might begin to wonder about how diligently the rest of the property has been maintained. De-clutter and depersonalize. Turn on all your lights and open all the blinds to make your house appear as light and open as possible. For open houses, take the extra time to add fresh flowers, build a fire in the fireplace and have something baking in the oven.

Do you need extra help preparing your home for sale? Give us a call today at 407-876-5771 for more information.

You’re ready to dip your toe into the “green” ocean by adding a few environmentally-friendly features to your South Florida home and taking a “greener” attitude toward the way you live. Whether you’re doing this strictly to help the planet, to save money or a combination, implementing water-saving systems and habits is a good place to start.

Here are 10 ways you can conserve water in your South Florida home:

1. Plant landscaping that requires minimal watering. In the U.S.A., up to 1.5 billion gallons of water are wasted daily watering yards. If the landscaping project is too expensive or time consuming right now, the next four tips give you easier-to-implement ideas for conserving water in your yard.

2. Water your lawn only when it truly needs it. Walk across the grass to test if your lawn needs water. If you leave footprints, it’s time to water.

3. Water your lawn in the early morning. Up to 30 percent of the water can evaporate when you water midday.

4. Set your lawn mower one notch higher. This makes your lawn more drought-tolerant.

5. Buy a rain barrel. Save rain water to water your lawn and garden.

6. Clean your concrete slabs with a broom. Especially in the summertime, many people spray their concrete driveways, sidewalks or patios with water to clean them.

7. Wash your car using a bucket of water. Or, use a commercial car wash that recycles water. Call around to find one in your area that recycles water.

8. Wash full loads of laundry and dishes. Use your water-saver cycle. Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher. Consider purchasing a high efficiency washing machine which can save over 50% in laundry water and energy use.

9. Check for water leaks. Promptly fix any you find. Check your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter changes at all, you most likely have a leak.

10. Keep a bottle of water in the refrigerator. Don’t waste water waiting for it to run cold from the faucet. When your faucet runs for 5 minutes, it uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.

If you implement just a few of these suggestions, you’ll save one of our most valuable and scarce resources, and you’ll also save money.

If you’d like to buy an eco-friendly South Florida home, we can help. Give us a call today at 407-876-5771.

Finally, it’s spring! With this winter’s record setting snow and rain, it’s more important than ever to perform some spring maintenance tasks. You’ll reduce frustration and save money by touring your property to head off problems that may have occurred during the cold winter months.

Here’s a list of my top 10 South Florida home maintenance tasks for the spring:

1. Cut shrubs and trees. Remove dead or broken limbs. Have a professional tree service remove large trees that are dead. Trim overgrown trees and shrubs away from your home to discourage the growth of mildew and moisture.
2. Check your gutters and downspouts. You know the old adage “April showers bring May flowers.” Don’t let all those April showers cause your basement or crawl space to flower with mold. Make sure downspouts drain away from the foundation and are clear and free of debris.
3. Examine exposed wood. Because wood is porous material, it easily deteriorates when exposed to the weather. Inspect the wood trim around windows and doors and your wooden decks and railing. If you find cracked or peeling paint, sand the area and repaint it promptly. Repair split or damaged wood.
4. Inspect siding and stucco. Look for obvious problems, such as warped, missing or damaged boards, holes in stucco, crumbling mortar, cracks, and defective paint.
5. Install surge protectors. Spring often brings electrical storms. Each time a surge occurs, the damage to your electronics and electrical appliance accumulates, weakening the components until they finally fail. Good grounding and properly installed surge protectors should protect your equipment from all but the most severe electrical surges. Select surge protectors that have indicating lights or audible alarms to indicate when they need to be replaced. The surge protectors should be listed to UL Standard 1449 and come with a manufacturer's warranty.
6. Inspect your A/C. Clear leaves and other debris away from the outside unit. Have a professional air conditioning contractor inspect and maintain your system as recommended by the manufacturer.
7. Check for roof damage. Remove any dead trees/branches/litter from the roof. Replace shingles that are warped, loose, cracked or are missing granules. Have a qualified roofer repair damaged flashing around plumbing vents, skylights and chimneys.
8. Examine concrete for signs of cracks or movement. Decks, patios, sidewalks and driveways should be checked for winter damage. Before weeds take up residence, fill cracks with a concrete crack filler or silicone caulk. Pressure wash and seal the concrete.
9. Check water supply lines. Are any of them dripping or leaking? Turn the water on and place your thumb or finger over the opening. If you can stop the flow of water, it is likely the pipe inside the home is damaged and will need to be replaced.
10. Inspect your lawn and garden equipment. Clean equipment and sharpen blades to make yard work easier.

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As houses continue to sit on the market without the slightest sign of interested buyers, sellers are lowering prices and pouring more money into upgrades and remodels. While these updates might help increase sales, you could achieve the same results with your South Florida home by spending less cash and adding more green.

With the growing demand for green features, buyers like the idea of purchasing a house that already contains a few eco-conscious elements. From environmentally sound materials to energy efficient windows and doors, just adding one green upgrade could be the ticket to spark interest and sell your South Florida home.

6 eco-features buyers love:

1. Water-saving appliances – Install low-flow toilets and aerators on showers to reduce your water usage and see a surprising reduction in your bills.
2. High-efficiency filters and air purifiers – Remove even the smallest dust particles and kill bacteria that could be floating throughout your house.
3. Paving stones – Use paving stones for your driveway in place of concrete. It looks quaint and allows rainwater to seep into the ground, instead of flooding the storm water system.
4. A sealed garage – Properly seal your garage to ensure poisonous fumes and outdoor contaminates don’t accidentally seep into your living areas.
5. Solar power – Decrease your energy bill by incorporating these sun soakers into your grid. Just make sure they’re positioned discretely, so they don’t become an eyesore.
6. Efficient windows – Help regulate your home’s temperature by limiting air leakage.

If you don’t have the cash to turn your house completely green, just update one or two features and be sure to highlight them when marketing your home. By providing your potential buyer with energy savings, you may also save yourself time and money when your home sells faster and for more money.

Don’t endure another day of waiting for someone to buy your South Florida home. With the right updates and marketing, we can help you turn your house green and cash in on your pot of gold. Call us at 407-876-5771 for more information.

If you’re looking at Southeast Florida homes to buy, you’re probably overwhelmed by everything you need to take into account before making your final choice. You have to think about the Southeast Florida home’s size, location, price and condition, to name a few.

Some of the most important features to carefully examine are those that cannot be easily or inexpensively changed. You can easily and relatively inexpensively repaint the bright pink walls and replace the avocado refrigerator. But what about the power lines hanging across the backyard? You may never be able to get those removed.

Here are a few difficult to fix flaws you may want to steer clear of:

• Odd smells coming from businesses in the neighborhood such as farms, garbage dumps and recycling centersA busy road
• Noise from businesses, trains, airports or flight paths
• Super steep driveway or road to the home
• Traffic from busy shopping centers or entertainment facilities
• A floodplainWatch out for flaws that are expensive and difficult (or even impossible) to fix. They can significantly decrease your enjoyment of the home, while you live there. They can also lengthen your Southeast Florida home’s time on the market and reduce its resale value, when you’re ready to sell.

Shopping for a home to buy? Let us help you find a home that is free of tough to fix flaws. Give us a call today at 407-876-5771.

The fact is that not all Florida real estate agents are created equal. There are important differences you need to consider before choosing an agent to help you buy a home.

Here are some fictional beliefs people have about Florida real estate agents and the facts behind them.

1. Fiction: Any agent you contact about a property is now your buyer’s agent and is looking out for your best interests.

Fact: When you call the agent whose name is on the For Sale sign in the front yard of the home, you’re calling the seller’s agent. That agent is looking out for the home seller’s best interest, not yours. Hire a buyer’s agent and ask him or her to show you homes you’re interested in seeing.

2. Fiction: When you hire a buyer's agent, you have to pay their commission.

Fact: In most cases, the seller pays the commission for both the seller's agent and the buyer's agent. In a typical listing agreement, the seller agrees to pay a set percentage of the sales price and this amount is divided between the two real estate agents involved in the sale.

3. Fiction: Florida real estate agents won’t show you a FSBO (for sale by owner).

Fact: If you find a FSBO you’d like to see, ask your agent to show it to you. Your agent will contact the property owner and negotiate commission and paperwork, such as “permission to show” or “one-time show” agreements. If the seller is unwilling to pay commission, you may decide you don’t want to see the home, or you can choose to pay the buyer’s agent’s commission. You then get the same service from your agent as if he or she was showing you a typical home for sale.

To get the home of your dreams at the best price and terms, hire a buyer’s agent to represent your interests. Knowing you have an expert on your side makes any real estate experience more pleasant and profitable.

Good news for the housing industry! Nationwide new home starts increased 14.6% in January, reaching its highest rate in four months and increasing more than analysts expected.

During the International Builders’ Show in Florida, David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, projected single-family housing starts to rise 21% in 2011.

To what can we attribute these actual and projected increases? The four key elements driving new construction in 2011 are:

• Sustained job growth. Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®, projects about 2 million jobs to be added in 2011. Unemployment is expected to drop to 9.2 percent.
• Increasing U.S. population. Over the past 10 years, the U.S. population has increased by 27 million. Continued population growth will also stimulate construction and sales of Florida homes. “All the indicator trends are pointing to a gradual housing recovery,” Yun says.
• Low interest rates. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for Florida homes is forecast to rise gradually to 5.3 percent around the end of 2011.
• An increase in the multi-family category. The majority of the new construction projects were for apartment buildings and other multi-family units. The rate of starts for single-family homes was the lowest in almost two years. Independent economist Joel Naroff said, "What is nice to see is that developers seem to be picking up the slack by putting up rental and condo units instead, a trend that is likely to continue."

Another boost to the housing market will come as lending opens up with safe underwriting standards for creditworthy buyers.

If you have any questions about buying or selling South Florida homes or about our local real estate market, please give us a call today at 407-876-5771.

With so many South Florida homes for sale, it’s hard to determine how much money and time you need to invest in order to get your home ready for the real estate market. To sell your house quickly, one helpful strategy all real estate professionals agree on is staging.

In general, the goal of staging South Florida homes for sale is to make it easier for potential buyers to see themselves living in that space. From getting rid of the excess stuff we all seem to accumulate to filling a home you’ve already moved out of with furniture, you’ll increase your chances of a fast sale by staging your home.

3 strategies of staging

1. Minimize clutter – Buyers could completely skip over the positive qualities of your home if they’re too focused on all of the toys, gnome collections or stacks of stuff you have laying around. If you can’t part with the possessions, then rent a storage unit.
2. Bring in a professional – If staging is too daunting of a task for you, or you just don’t have time, hire a professional to get your home in ship shape. He or she might cost a little now, but will save you time and money in the long run.
3. Rent furniture – Not everyone has the money to go out and buy new furniture for their living room, especially if you’ve already moved into another home. Renting furniture is more affordable than you’d imagine. For just over $100 a month, you could rent furniture, sell your home swiftly and be rid of your mortgage payment!

From repainting a bright hallway for a more neutral look to putting your children’s larger toys in storage so they don’t clutter the living room, staging will take some time and effort, but your payoff could be huge.

While some people are hesitant to buy into a real estate market that seems to still be bottoming out, many studies have shown that owning a house is an investment in your future and that of your community. From tax breaks to property taxes, being a Miami home owner can put money in the bank. It also gives you a sense of pride in contributing to community institutions such as the police force, local government offices, fire stations and free medical services.

Did you know that statistically you and your neighbors are more likely to properly maintain and update your Miami homes when you own them rather than rent them? Maintaining and updating your home boosts the real estate market around you, giving you the chance to increase the value of your property, your neighbors’ property and eventually your entire community.

4 more reasons why you should buy instead of rent:

1. Building financial security – While it might take many years for you to actually make a profit on your house, you’ll still have your money secured in a tangible investment that you can pass down for generations to come.

2. Investing in your community – If you pay property taxes, you’ll be investing in your community. You could play a part in contributing to more parks, cleaner streets and better schools for you, your children and your neighbors.

3. Buying while the housing market is slow – With the high rate of foreclosures and slow real estate market, you can scoop up amazing homes at great prices. Purchase while the market is slow and your investment could grow exponentially within the next 10 years.

4. Taking advantage of tax benefits – You’ll receive a federal income tax break, and you’ll get to deduct the interest paid on your mortgage and property taxes — which means more money in the bank!

Use an online mortgage calculator to determine what you can afford to buy instead of paying rent. While renting can be appealing, you won’t be doing your financial security, your children’s schools or your community any long-term favors.

Want to discover more benefits of buying instead of renting a Miami home? Call us 407-876-5771 for more information.

Ideally, to make a room light and bright you want a lot of large windows that let in natural light. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have large windows in every room of our Miami homes. So, what do we do to brighten those dark rooms?

Increase Natural Light

If a room has one large window, make the most of this natural light by placing a mirror opposite that window. The mirror will scatter and reflect the ambient daylight throughout the room.

Add Artificial Light

Another great way to lighten window-challenged rooms in your Miami home is to add artificial ambient lighting. Ambient lighting, whether natural or artificial, sets the tone and mood of each room. Here are several ways to add artificial ambient light to your rooms:

· Recessed fixtures: Recessed fixtures throw light downward in a cone shape, so place them in an evenly spaced grid pattern. This allows pools of light to overlap and provide consistent lighting.

· Chandeliers: A chandelier can overpower a room if it’s too big or seem out of proportion if it’s too small. To calculate the best size chandelier for your room, measure the width of the room in feet. Double that number to get the diameter of the ideal chandelier in inches. For example, a room that’s 10 feet wide should have a chandelier no wider than 20 inches in diameter.

· Surface-mounted fixtures: Unlike recessed fixtures, surface-mounted fixtures do not disappear into the ceiling or wall. If you want to achieve a unified look, match the color of the surface-mounted light with the color of the ceiling or wall. Surface-mounted lights come in a wide range of styles. They can be very functional fluorescent types with white diffusing plastic covers or decorative crystal designs that add sparkle and drama to the foyers and hallways.

The best ambient lighting is subtle lighting that comes from all directions and softens the look of your room, making it more livable.

The right lighting can make your home appear bigger and fresher. It makes a small room look bigger and a large room seem more intimate. It can also add value to your Miami home for sale.

Just like furniture, lighting can be used as home décor to make your home more beautiful and functional. Done correctly, lighting can positively impact the way buyers view your Miami home for sale – and for far less money than other decoration options.

For maximum impact, every room in your home should have three layers of light:

1. Ambient Lighting: Ambient lighting provides overall illumination for the whole room. Typical lighting fixtures for this layer include ceiling fixtures such as recessed lights, chandeliers and surface-mounted lights.
2. Task Lighting: Task lighting focuses on a specific area of the room where activities like playing cards, reading or sewing require additional light. It can be as simple as under-cabinet lighting in a kitchen or a reading lamp by a chair.
3. Accent Lighting: Accent lighting creates drama in a room by highlighting architectural features, paintings, statues and other decorative items. Accent lights should be small and specifically directed toward the decorative piece you want to accentuate. One of the most popular forms of accent lighting is track lighting.

If you’re hoping to sell your Palm Beach real estate in 2011, make some New Year’s resolutions to help the process along. Resolve to:

1. Interview and get a comparative marketing analysis (CMA) from at least three agents from three different Palm Beach real estate agencies. Each agent has a different opinion about the value of your home and how to best market your home. Learn from each agent and then sign a contract with the agent you decide to hire.

2. Research the number of foreclosures and short sales in your neighborhood. To sell your home, find out how many foreclosures and short sales you’re competing against. This impacts the value of your property as well as the length of time it takes you to sell. Your Palm Beach real estate agent can help you with this research.

3. Be realistic about price. After reviewing your three CMAs, talk with the agent you hired and come to an agreement on the price that can get your home sold. Ideally, that price should be at or just below the selling price of similar houses in your neighborhood that have sold in the past 90 days.

4. Counter offers. Be calm if a buyer suggests a lower price than you want. Don’t just snap his or her nose off. Consider your options. Can you afford to let the house go at the offered price? If you can and still want to say no, think about it… how long did it take to get this potential buyer? Super low bids are not insults; they’re a buyer’s way of testing you. So, even if an offer seems insulting low to you, counter it. If the buyer wants your home, he or she will come up to a realistic price.

5. Remain flexible. Make concessions where you can. The buyer wants you to pay part of the closing costs? That’s a great way to sweeten the deal. Fix those small problems found in the home inspection. Add on a home warranty. A successful sale means everyone walks away happy.

Put these resolutions into action, and your new year may turn out to be even happier than you expected!

If you’d like a proven marketing plan to get your Palm Beach real estate sold, give us a call today at 407-876-5571. You’ll also receive a free competitive marketing analysis.

Most people make New Year’s resolutions to improve themselves. This year, consider making a few New Year’s Resolutions to improve your Fort Lauderdale home. Here are 6 ideas to choose from:

1. Renovate. Choose one project you really want to do, and get it done this year. Add on a deck, make minor kitchen renovations or install a new bathroom floor.
2. Practice Fort Lauderdale home safety. Practice fire safety by ensuring your smoke alarms work and holding fire drills. Prevent poisoning by keeping cleaners, medications and beauty products in a place where children can’t reach them and using child safety locks. Avoid falls by having bright lights over stairs and steps and on landings. Also, keep stairs clear of clutter.
3. Test for radon. Radon is a significant contaminant that affects indoor air quality worldwide. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Even if you live in an area that typically doesn’t have radon problems, the US EPA recommends testing your home for radon because testing is the only way to know your Fort Lauderdale home's radon levels.
4. Do one thing to go green. Change to Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL), install a low-flow shower head, use green cleaning products or start recycling.
5. Check water quality. Drinking water quality varies from location to location, depending on the condition of the source water from which it is drawn and the treatment it receives. Every community water supplier must provide an annual report to its customers. Read your report to find out what your water contains.

Private wells and homes drawing water from other sources such as lakes and rivers are not regulated. If your drinking water does not come from a public water system, you alone are responsible for assuring that it is safe. Routine water testing is essential.

6. Reduce your utility bills. Review your electric and gas expenses for the previous 12 months and make a plan to reduce them. There are many ways to save on energy bills: increase your insulation, weather strip windows and doors, purchase energy efficient appliances, install energy efficient windows and adjust home temperatures.

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Frequently, there are news stories that impact our Miami real estate market. Here are two I want to share with you this month:

Rising Interest Rates Could Get Buyers Moving

Rising interest rates may finally push Miami real estate buyers off the fence and into the market.

In December, after President Obama agreed to extend tax cuts for two years, the financial markets indicated this event would most likely push mortgage interest rates higher.

Analysts predict that buyers will move quickly when it looks like rates are going up and are unlikely to come down. "Once people see this might actually be the bottom, they’ll go for it," says Paul Dales, U.S. economist at Capital Economics Ltd.

For an example of interest rate increases, note what happened in December, 2010.

• On December 2, the 30-year fixed interest rate hovered around 4.46 percent.
• One week later, on December 9, it was up to 4.61 percent.
• When I checked on December 26, the 30-year fixed interest rate was up again to 4.875 percent.

National Foreclosure Rates Fall

Has the real estate market hit bottom? One sign that it has is RealtyTrac’s report that foreclosures fell sharply in November. RealtyTrac’s November, 2010, U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ indicated a 21 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month and a 14 percent decrease from November, 2009.

According to RealtyTrac, a mortgage research firm, foreclosure activity decreased dramatically in November with fewer than 300,000 properties receiving a foreclosure notice for the first time since February, 2009.

While foreclosures typically decrease in November, and we’re sure to see a rebound in foreclosure activity, these statistics are not to be dismissed because they show the lowest level of foreclosure activity since November, 2008. Additionally, both the 21 percent month-over-month decrease and 14 percent year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity were the highest drops recorded since RealtyTrac began publishing the U.S. Foreclosure Report in January, 2005.

Want to know more about the Miami real estate market? Give us a call at 407-876-5771 to discuss our real estate market. We look forward to hearing from you.

When Your Miami Home for Sale Won't Sell--Rent It!

Your home simply isn’t selling for your desired price. If you don’t have to sell in order to buy a new home, make your Miami home for sale work for you by renting it out. But, first, consider the pros and cons of renting to be sure it’s the right choice for you.

Here are four potential pros to renting your Miami home for sale.

1. You continue building equity. Your property will continue to appreciate and the principal on your mortgage will continue to decrease.
2. Landlord tax advantages could offset income tax on rent.
3. Rental income could cover part or all of your mortgage, tax and insurance payments. Depending on how much you can charge for rent, you may even make a profit.
4. You can wait to sell until the market for your home improves.

Here are four potential cons to renting your Miami home for sale:

1. Renters could damage your property.
2. Depending on when you sell, you could be taxed on the whole profit.
3. Your equity remains tied up in the house.
4. Being a landlord is challenging. You face potential legal or financial problems with tenants. You also have to spend time and money on maintenance.

In addition to considering these pros and cons of renting, you may want to do a capitalization rate calculation to help you determine if renting or selling is a better financial decision for you.

Whether you decide you’d like to get your home sold now or you have questions about renting, we can help. Contact us at 407-876-5771.

Rain gutters are essential because they direct rain water away from your home to protect it from water damage. Any home repair professional can tell you about the damage sustained when South Florida homes don’t have gutters or the gutters haven’t been properly maintained.

• Types of House Gutters

  Wood gutters are still in use, especially on older South Florida homes, but they are perhaps the most difficult to maintain properly. These gutters are prone to rotting, wood and mold. Additionally, they’re an attractant for wood-eating insects. The weight of these gutters requires very strong mounting to compensate in the case of backed-up water. If your home has wood gutters, you may want to update your gutters to one of the more modern options.
  
• One of the most popular materials for gutters is aluminum. These gutters are lightweight, cost-effective and durable. If improperly maintained, standing water can rust the metal and cause leaks. Depending on where the leak is, this can create rust streaks down your South Florida home’s siding.
  
• Vinyl gutters don’t have the rusting problems of aluminum or the weight problems of wood. Vinyl doesn’t rot; it’s very heavy-duty and lightweight. Vinyl gutters are easy to maintain. But, leaks can be an issue with vinyl. Because vinyl gutters are often sold in shorter lengths than aluminum gutters, there are more seams which can lead to more leaks. Vinyl gutters are also more susceptible to cracking or buckling in extreme temperatures and are extremely expensive to repair properly.
  
• Copper gutters don’t leak as they’re often installed in a solid piece. Copper won’t rust, and over time will turn an attractive shade of green. This type of gutter may never need to be replaced. The only real downside is the cost. You can expect to pay about double for copper gutters as compared to gutters made out of other materials. And, you’ll need to pay for installation also because copper gutters are definitely not recommended as a do-it-yourself project.

Want to buy a well-maintained home? Let us help. Give us a call today at 407-876-5771.

There is no simple way to discover which home-improvement projects will yield the highest return when you’re ready to sell your home. There are many variables that come into play such as the state of the real estate market when you put your Miami home up for sale, how old your home is, and the style of your home.

Here are several costly projects to pass up if you want to get the biggest bang for your bucks:

Extravagant Landscaping

Buyers expect a well-maintained yard; they don't expect the home's value to increase because of it. Beautiful landscaping may encourage potential buyers to take a closer look at your Miami home for sale, but it most likely will not add to the selling price. If a buyer is unable or unwilling to put in the effort to maintain an elaborate garden, it becomes a negative feature rather than a positive one.

Swimming Pool

A swimming pool seems like fun to have, but can actually be more of a hassle than a pleasure. Many potential buyers consider swimming pools expensive and time consuming to maintain. Buyers may say no to an otherwise perfect house if it has a pool. Or, they may include in the contract a stipulation that the seller has to take down an above-ground pool or fill in an in-ground pool, at their own expense, before closing.

High-End Upgrades

Buyers don’t want to see the absolute cheapest renovations in a Miami home for sale, but they also don’t want to pay more for the highest-priced upgrades that they don’t need. Marble countertops in a kitchen and a built-in sauna in a bathroom are nice, but unless you have a high-end home in a high-end neighborhood, don’t expect to get your money back from these upgrades.

Don’t spend thousands of dollars on a home-improvement project that will not increase your home's value when it comes time to sell. Do spend money on projects that will make your home a wonderful place to live in now and that may increase the selling price when you’re ready to sell.

Are you ready to sell your home? We can help. Give us a call today at 407-876-5771.