Well it’s safe to say that the housing market is moving forward in a recovery*. Inventory is down here along the NWFlorida area to about 5.9 months of inventory. That’s just about where you want to be for a healthy housing market. People who have been dying to get out of of their houses are starting to get some equity and are running to list, and people are waiting to buy them up.
But Credit Scores are still an issue, a lot of people have gone through the depression and really got roughed up financially, and that shows in credit scores. Well this is one of those things that we as an industry need to get ahead of. Because although this recovery is artificial, it will stall out when our buyers are unable to get qualified.
My experience in this department is that once most people get the bad news that they are unable to get qualified because of their credit scores, they go into their shell and disappear. So we need to start reaching out to credit repair experts, interviewing them, and working credit repair into the home buying process. It’ll take your process out about six to nine months but it’s worth it, and it will help keep the recovery* going.
A few weeks ago I went to Tallahassee for the Florida Realtors “Great American Realtor Days”. Our objective at this event was to bring issues that impact the Housing Industry to our elected representatives. Of the different issues that we discussed was the issue with the State ran insurance program “Citizens”.
This is how I defined this bill in my previous update:
HP7093/SB1622 or what I’ve come to call the clearing house bill designed to get people off of the State ran home insurance program and get them into a private insurance program. Florida Realtors wants this to be passed, and so do I. But my reason isn’t because Florida Realtors says that they support it, but because of January 31, 2013, Citizens is the largest property insurer in Florida with almost 1.3 million policies and over $418 billion in exposure. That means if we have a bad hurricane season, the state of Florida takes a massive financial hit, and I’m against that, and guess who’s paying that bill? FR: Yes / Justin: Yes
Well The Florida Current highlighted a Herald-Tribune article that discusses opposition to this bill. The opposition of this bill is saying that IF we force people off of the State ran insurance program it will retard our housing recovery in the State of Florida. Because insurance premiums will start to increase and make home buying less affordable, well BUBBLE ALERT!! Of course housing will be less affordable, and that’s alright because “housing insurance provider” is not the job of the Federal or the State governments. So the next time you hear about the “Housing Recovery” in Florida or anywhere, take it with a grain of salt, because chances are, some big fat bureaucracy is holding it up on life support.
Get governments out of housing, get them out of insurance (housing, and health care) and let’s have a real recovery for once. Have I changed my position on
HP7093/SB1622? No, I still support this bill.
HP7093/SB1622 or what I’ve come to call the clearing house bill designed to get people off of the State ran home insurance program and get them into a private insurance program. Florida Realtors wants this to be passed, and so do I. But my reason isn’t because Florida Realtors says that they support it, but because of January 31, 2013, Citizens is the largest property insurer in Florida with almost 1.3 million policies and over $418 billion in exposure. That means if we have a bad hurricane season, the state of Florida takes a massive financial hit, and I’m against that, and guess who’s paying that bill? FR: Yes / Justin: Yes
Well The Florida Current highlighted a Herald-Tribune article that discusses opposition to this bill. The opposition of this bill is saying that IF we force people off of the State ran insurance program it will retard our housing recovery in the State of Florida. Because insurance premiums will start to increase and make home buying less affordable, well BUBBLE ALERT!! Of course housing will be less affordable, and that’s alright because “housing insurance provider” is not the job of the Federal or the State governments. So the next time you hear about the “Housing Recovery” in Florida or anywhere, take it with a grain of salt, because chances are, some big fat bureaucracy is holding it up on life support.
So here’s some things you don’t know about me that you should, enjoy!
- I played trombone in high school
- I hate wearing neck ties
- I listen to “Yeah” by Usher when I get out of the shower
- Rum is my weakness
- Titanic is my favorite Chick Flick
- I’m a natural introvert
- I don’t buy into the new aged dad crap. I’m old school, I want my kid to be afraid of me.
- My last meal would be a Chili Dog
- I hate concerts….all concerts….except Kellie Pickler
- I’ve almost been attacked by a shark twice
- I’m not a Republican
- I can argue against everyone of my own beliefs
- Clothes are annoying, I don’t like wearing them
- My poor wife rolls her eyes a lot because of me
- Decisions, I make them really fast
- I can watch Iron Man non stop
- I hate shaving
- I don’t remember the last time I slept through the night
- Canned Patriotism really annoys me
- Boxer Briefs
- I only knew my wife for four months before we started living together
- I cannot let my food touch
- I don’t really watch sports
- I have two Dachshunds, Abby and Jack
- Global Warming is crap
So last week on the Shawn Wilson Show we got into a conversation about home ownership and the American Dream. It’s interesting really because there’s a movement in this country that says that we should accept being a country of renters. These people are absolute idiots and have no idea what liberty and freedom are about….home ownership is simply about Freedom.
Home ownership has a significant impact one people’s net worth, educational achievements, civic participation, health, and overall quality of life. It’s a proven fact that for every house that’s sold, $60,000 is injected into that local community, The National Association of Realtors® estimates that one job is generated for every two home sales. Using that ratio, 1,000 home sales generate 500 jobs. Not to mention that Real Estate makes up 15% of our Nations GDP. So does Home Ownership matter? You bet it does!
So if you are living the American dream of home ownership, I’m excited for you. If you’re not and you want to, you deserve to. Because people are fighting everyday, and have been for the past two hundred years for Americans to own property.
Cheers Everybody!!
Yeah, you read that right, I negotiated a short sale and I liked it, and yes I did make a horrid play at the Katy Perry song, “I kissed a girl, and I liked it”. But here is what I learned.
1. This is a hard job, the people who negotiate Short Sales full time are saints, and they have an amazing ability to put up with TONS of bullshit.
2. Get personal, the person your dealing with in a Short Sale (on the lender’s side) has a lot on their plate, and they dont care if this Short Sale works or not, so get personal, call them out on it, and go all around them and up their chain of command. You want to be annoying, and if you are, they will make you go away by pushing your deal through.
3. Drink, yeah you will have days that will require you to drink more than you think a human being should drink. Seriously, it makes the process a lot easier.
4. Use Twitter and talk about the status of your deal. Want to learn how to do it? Follow me on Twitter and see how it’s done Justin Lindsey.
5. Communicate often with everyone involved, buyers, sellers, brokers, agents. Everybody wants this to be over, and if you’re giving them information, they are on your side.
Do you have some tips that I missed? Please don’t hesitate to share! Cheers!!
I do not like Senator Nelson of Florida one bit, he’s a liberal, who’s pro-abortion, anti-gun, anti-American and pro-socialism. However, the stars have aligned, and I have to say that I agree with him on something. He’s tired of seeing money that has been set aside for helping homeowners NOT helping homeowners! So, he’s called for a federal audit of the Florida’s Homeowner’s Aid program that is currently sitting with 23% of the total allocation actually being used to see what’s going on.
As of March 1, it said 9,052 homeowners have been approved for money, out of 44,854 that have applied. There are 11,953 applications currently in the review process.
The program was announced in February 2010, but Florida was one of the last states to implement its plan, opening it statewide in April 2011.
A year ago, the inspector general criticized Florida for “significant delays” in implementing the program. The inspector general still had concerns six months later, which were outlined in an October report.
So at this point, the obvious question is, “So What?”. Senator Nelson is calling for the audit of a state program, granted money by a federal program which is maintained by a federal agency, of a federal government who doesn’t know how to manage money. What do we really think is going to happen here? I appreciate the efforts of the Senator in this instance, but I would rather everyone associated with this program to be given a pink slip and replaced by people who actually respect the people’s money.
If you follow Ben Slade Realty on Facebook, then you probably saw our Bluewater Bay “picture challenge” I’m still working on the name. But what happened was Jennifer McDougald won a $15.00 gift card for answering a question. Well our schedules never matched up, so I found out she was at a Lia Sophia party and walked in like I owned the place and delivered it.
So if you live along the Emerald Coast, and you are considering buying or selling a house, then you obviously want to know how the housing market is looking, right? Well in Okaloosa county I have good news for you, we’re coming into a SELLER’S MARKET!! What that means to the Real Estate uninitiated is that we actually have more buyers that we do inventory, the inventory trendlines for our region are trending downward over the last nine months.
So what does this mean if you’re looking to put your home or property on the market in the near future? Well, it means that if priced correctly, you’ll have a lot of agents and buyer’s coming by to take a look at your place, and that is a good thing for our local, state, and national economy. You can check out this entire report that is put out by Florida Realtors here. I realize that this report is from February
So the tax deadline is right around the corner, literally, it’s tomorrow and if you haven’t filed your taxes yet, you still have time but you need to get after it. For you without your calendars, the deadline is Monday (Tomorrow). If you do need to file an extension, click here.
That link will take you to the IRS page that explains it. The IRS is the only credible source for how to file an extension, so if you see anyone out there in the wide world of the Internet saying something different, they are wrong.
If you live along the Emerald Coast, it looks like it’s going to be a good lookin weekend, so enjoy it everybody!!
So I went over to Tallahassee the past couple of days and participated in the Florida Realtor’s “Great American Realtor Days”, or “Rally In Tally” it was by all measurable standards an “interesting experience”. The purpose of this event was for Realtors to visit the Capitol to meet with and lobby legislators on pending real estate legislation. What pending legislation you ask?
- HP7093/SB1622 or what I’ve come to call the clearing house bill designed to get people off of the State ran home insurance program and get them into a private insurance program. Florida Realtors wants this to be passed, and so do I. But my reason isn’t because Florida Realtors says that they support it, but because of January 31, 2013, Citizens is the largest property insurer in Florida with almost 1.3 million policies and over $418 billion in exposure. That means if we have a bad hurricane season, the state of Florida takes a massive financial hit, and I’m against that, and guess who’s paying that bill? FR: Yes / Justin: Yes
- HB211/SB234 this one is tricky to me, but this one allows the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) to collect assessments directly from policyholders. Florida Realtors supports this one, I dont think that I do, I’m open to changing my mind, but at this point I’m going with a big fat “NO” on this one. FIGA is a nonprofit organization that pays on the behalf of insolvent insurance companies. Who guarantee insurance policies for homeowners. That sounds great right? Well yeah until FIGA comes in and slaps everyone in your neighborhood with a $250.00 assessment, and if you don’t pay it? Your insurance provider is to penalize you in the same way they would if you missed a principal insurance payment. I think that this bill was made with great intentions but, I don’t have a contractual agreement with FIGA, and I’m not okay with them riding in and slapping me with an assessment because they need some cash. FR: Yes / Justin: No
- HB1247/SB1248 the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Projection Model. In this bill we are asking our representatives to build a model to require insurance companies to standardize the way they assess risk on properties and to include storm surge and rain WITH wind. This will better identify risks associated with hurricanes and allow for better estimate the maximum loss that should be insured. Florida Realtors supports this, and I must certainly do not. I say that we should give a tax incentive to companies that do this on their own. But that’s not all this bill is about, this bill has $10 Million dollars associated with it and that money goes to a hand full of organizations all with a hand in Hurricane preparedness, I’m a financial conservative, and I’m a libertarian so I’m not into throwing money around, and I’m not for MAKING an insurance company do anything. FR: Yes / Justin: No
- HB 629 /SB 656 this bill is focused on phasing out the sales tax over a six year perior. In 2013 the sales tax on commercial leases is estimated to cost Florida businesses 1.3 BILLION dollars. I’. naturally all for it, because I’m FOR people keeping their money, however our representatives are doing this, with an expectation to tax sales done on the internet to make up the difference. My recommendation is that my representatives NOT SUPPORT THE SALES TAX ON INTERNET SALES until we begin phasing our the sales tax on commercial leases.The Florida Realtors support this, and so do I with an asterisk because this legislation would help economic development councils and industry groups attract new businesses to their regions. FR: Yes / Justin: Yes*
In closing it was a good event, I’m not sure what we did because we only talked to people who believe what we believe. If I was running this thing, we would be letting you know those representatives who are against these things, and we would have gone and knocked on their doors and asked one simple question. Why are you against home ownership? Have a great day everybody!!
The Justin Lindsey Report 