Orlando Real Estate Blog

We have been looking around for opportunities in the Windermere community of Summerport.  The location is great, the builder was good, and the amenities are just what you would want.  The problem is that most of the homes sold at the peak of the market in mid-2006.  This deal in particular was for a 4 bed 2 and 1/2 bath + bonus room, pool, a conservation view and 3,115 sq ft.  Sold in 2006 for $577,000…the bank agreed to our offer of $265,000 cash after a long waiting period.  During that time we have seen things further deteriorate in the community…the “RESET Button” has been pushed….and unfortunately the “Reset Button” is not the same thing as the “Easy Button”.  This is greater then a 50% reduction in value.  At one point you see a home that looks great and the two beside it have not been maintained at all and look horrible. 

How long will that one guy hold out? Who will bail him out?  At this moment you can buy homes for a lot less then they can be reproduced for, interest rates are low and your dream home is closer to your grasp than you thought possible. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you do buy today, it will take some time for the banks to sell all of the inventory they have coming online and that you will have to look at some sorry lawns for a year or so. The good news is that very little land around this community is available for development due to traffic and school concurrency issues so the competition for reselling these home in the future will be low…if you can imagine that. 

Today we have just contracted on a bank owned house with a cash deal for a 4/2 1960 sf on conservation in a gated community close to the Lake Nona area for $155,000.  This home sold in 2006 for $335,000!  No joke that is more than a 50% reduction.  We have several deal set up to close by the end of the month.  The banks want to get things off of the book prior to the end of the year and now is the time to make it happen.  Our deal is set to close on the 21st of this month…The iron is hot and it is now the time to strike….call or email me to get going.

I have been working with a savvy cash buyer and we just come across a great deal. It is for a house that sold for $153,000 on March 7th 2007….we can now buy it for $50,000!!!! That is a drop like few I have ever seen.  Now keep in mind this is in a rough section of town, needs a little work and was built in 1959; but to see such movement by the bank is amazing and welcomed.  This will allow a lot of inventory to burn off the market. 

It is a buyers market…even if you do not have cash.  Quite frankly since we are going in so low on a lot of these homes I would say 80% of the time we are getting beaten by a financing deal.  I have a great lender at Resource Mortgage named Eric Papalini that can get you set up to go after these bank owned properties…we just need to get your ducks in a row and make sure the bank has nothing to push you back on. 

Orlando is a great place to live, work and play in. I decided to have a boys night out with the kids and living in Orlando provides a lot of opportunities for some wholesome and inexpensive family fun. Our night started out at Downtown Disney. We stumbled upon a new restaurant that just opened T-Rex…and for my youngest son, a big dinosaur fan, this was a special treat. The line for the place was around the building so we just checked out the gift shop and poked our heads in for a peak.

The place looks awsome…fire was shooting out of a volcanic ridge, dinosaurs roared and the tropical fish provideded a good balance to the chaos by swiming peacfully at the bar. I think we know where my youngest next birthday dinner will be…

We then boarded a bus to take us to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Lodge and Campground…the first stop on the property is called “The Outpost”, this is where you would get the buses to take you to your cabin or RV spot. I simply told the driver on one of the other buses that we wanted to go to the “Campfire”…soon we arrived to the sounds of campfire songs, and the smells of hot dogs roasting. My kids…that did not know where I was taking them had smiles on their faces usually only seen on Christmas day.

Our first stop was the wagon to get some grub…ooh I mean food. And soon the movie Tarzan started and to my surprise the kids had not seen this one. It started to get a little cool, of course, our jackets are back in my truck…safely at Downtown Disney. So it seemed like a good time to get some marshmellows and sit by the fire. We could sit comfortably around the fire…roast the marshmellows and watch the movie…great set up. I don’t know what my kids liked more…eating them or watching them burst into flames.

A lot of people came to see the movie but I would say it was still very comfortable and everyone was having a good time. Next time I hope to get a cabin for a few days to really explore the property and the amenities Disney provides.  All said I probably spent less then $20, and had a great time.

Another interesting note…I spoke to the bus driver and suggested that Disney should have hybrid buses…I hear they have over 250 buses in Orlando alone.  To my surprise he said they are on order and should be arriving starting next year.  I don’t know how true this is but it sounded good and he even suggested I visit http://www.designlineinternational.com/electrichybrid.cfm Which I did. Looks like they are electric which is great and I hope this is true…to see Disney a sterling member of the community take the lead in this area is a great thing.  Now only if I could get rid of my gas guzzler…btw I paid 1.99 a gallon this weekend for gas at Sam’s…$44 to fill up is great and half of what I was paying a few months ago.

                                        This may or may not be Disney’s new Bus

                            The Jamaican Bobsled team may have selected the colors…

I just went to this house and it is in very good condition and is located in a great little community in the Metrowest area called Stonebridge Lakes.  This community is very close to the Valencia Community College West campus and Universal Studios.  The community is gated and includes the groud maintenance for $180 per month which is not too bad.  The curb appeal of the community is great since all of the lawns are mowed and the grass is green…I loved the look

The Vitals…give me the vitals….

• Bank owned and on the market for 73 days
• 4 Bedroom 2 bathroom with 1,684
• Tile roof with a pond view
• zillow.com high value of $385,000 and current value of $269,000
• The bank is asking $225,000 and I think that is a very good price. 

This property is available as of right now…call for more details

Sometimes it is fun to see what people can create with almost unlimited budgets.  I was looking at some finished lots in Windermere and came across Ken Griffey Jr’s new home.  He sold his house in Isleworth and built this home in a real nice part of Windermere on a lake with over 10 acres of land…the builder was Ray Coudriet…one of the areas most respected custom home builders.  I couldn’t count all the garage’s but it was A LOT of them… I am sure the Griffey’s put a lot of time and work building their dream home and the results look amazing…the public records have the house at 24,457 sq ft heated.

It was a cloudy day but as you can see the house goes on and on and on….and has a double wall on the side to keep the riffraff out..so I couldn’t get in!

                     Casa De Homerun!

I have have been to several auctions of late by the very nature of my line of work.  Sometimes pulled to go by a client, other times out of pure curiosity. They always prove to be interesting so I recommend you pack up the kids and head to one for some good ole’ entertainment.

One auction of note, was the Lou Pearlman auction in the Windermere community of Chain-Du-Lac. The auction was a “bankruptcy auction” and subject to the judges approval and the judge declined the winning bid of $3,750,000 due to the fact that the bank pay off was much higher hence the current asking price of $5.6M. Hurry…buy this $5.6M fixer upper before it is too late….actually it will take a lot of work for a buyer to get the house in order and an investor would have to buy it for a steep discount when you consider the risk.

       This is Lou Pearlman’s old a/v equipment room….better run to Best Buy!

  The rear view of the old Pearlman House…now Bank of America’s…

Another auction I had the misfortune of attending was for a property called World Crest.  This is a condo hotel community located right off of Disney property.  I had a client fly into town to attend the event, willing to buy all of the units if the price was right.  We had to register the day before the auction.  See…this was an “absolute auction” for 15 units.  They made us at the time of registration place a minimum bid that we would definitely buy at. So we had to put a low number, what if we won!  We had to buy the units at a number the would CASH FLOW!  So we put $50,000 per unit down as I am sure everyone else did.  At that point I told my client they will probably cancel the auction and unfortunately I was right.  The auction was doomed for failure…why would you try to sell a vacation property in September…THE SLOWEST MONTH FOR TOURISM!  

Look at the monster turn out!

 Thank you for the free coffee and bagel but it doesn’t offset my fuel cost since it was about 4 bucks a gallon at the time.  Not only that I was told the auction cost the developer $150,000 upfront no matter if he sold a unit or not.  I am currently making a T-Shirt for the developer that says “I paid $150K for an auction and all I got was this shirt”.  I am available for consultation…its right on my card…”consultant”.  I would have saved him some serious money.

The auctions always have some good food…one event I went to in Lake Mary had a full spread…I loaded up my plate, got a drink and watched the festivities commence.  I can not say too much about this deal but we offered the seller a day before the auction a good price for the whole community…it was declined because they wanted our deposit hard…which we would not do until we had a due diligence period to inspect the property.  So they went forward with it and boy did they work the room good…I had to give them credit.  Less then half the properties actually closed at this point and the first bidder payed a lot more then the second or third buyer did, talk about losing equity fast for “lucky” bidder number one.  They still have properties available in that community today.  We offered a fair price that could have allowed the developer to wash his hands of the community.  Are you still reading this…..I can’t stop going on about this. It also amused me that the owner of the auction company said he would buy the lots himself if he wasn’t prohibited to do so, due to auction rules,…I call BS on that one. 

I just got another auction come across my desk…”honey forget the beach”… we are going to see a train wreck and I can tell you the time and place,  plus we will be fed!  The only way an auction will work, in my opinion, is if it is “100% Non-Cancelable Absolute Auction” to the highest bidder and I have not seen anyone willing to do that to this point. So for now auctions are going going gone….

You feel pretty good right now…you just cast your vote for your candidate of choice…one promises “change”…another a “new direction”…semantics I guess…but I applaud you for exercising your rights!  While you may feel as if your choice, made today, will be the most important decision you made over the last couple of years…it doesn’t have to be.  You can choose to pick a new home for you and your family; at a price that would have sounded impossible just a year ago. Invest in yourself, invest in America, buy a new house!  Or don’t and remember this opportunity you let slip by, on the day you cast your vote for America’s future, you also could have invested in your own! Mark this election day down as the day opportunity, change, and a new direction stared you in the face…what are you going to do with it?

You can qualify for a loan as long as you earn enough (have a job) and have good credit.  Yes, you need to have good credit…not perfect…but good and you know if your credit is good or not. If people are constantly calling you for payments, your credit is not good.  If your credit is in the tubes I know people that can help you work to improve your credit score.  FHA loans only require 3.5% down and have great rates, plus first time home buyers have many tools available to bring home ownership into reality for you. 

Invest in your family, buy a new house this year! 

I just sold our last 5 remaining lots in The Estates at Lake Clarice.  They have been sold to an investor at a price of $165,000 a piece and is working with SD Homes to build your dream home in Central Florida.  Not what what we sold them for last year but considering the state of things a health price nontheless.  I still have opportunities in the community for you to build a new home with SD Homes, AR Homes, and HNR Homes on homesites they have!

I also recently sold a home in the community for $1,964,000…more details on that soon!

I have just came across a great deal for the right investor, a grouping of over 160 finished lots at a price of only $5,000 per lot from one seller.  Keep in mind they enjoy the gift that keeps on giving…property taxes…so you would have some carry cost.  They are located all around the state, mostly near the coast. Call or email me for details…