Clearwater Real Estate Blog

Whether you’re purchasing or selling your home you can make a more informed decision by seeing what the experts have to offer. There are many resources available to homebuyers and sellers that help make your decisions easier.

If you’re looking for ideas on the latest trends check out the following websites: www.hgtv.com, and www.fineliving.com. Both sites have scheduled programs to watch and articles to read. This research can be fun and entertaining. You’ll learn about the availability of new amenities for the home.  You'll also find suggestions for small updates to your home that will help with the sale of your property, or larger improvements for your newly purchased home that will increase your quality of life for many years.

Research prior to your transaction, will reassure you that the final decision you reach is the right decision.

Points to consider when buying a house

Here are some basic things to know when looking to buy a house:

The cost. Before you start looking for a house, go to a lender and find out how much money you can borrow and get pre-qualified. That will narrow your search to houses that you can afford.

The down payment. A 20-percent down payment is ideal because it allows you to avoid costly private mortgage insurance. If you can't afford such a large down payment, consider taking out a second mortgage that will effectively bring the down payment up to 20 percent. Such arrangements are often called 10-10-80 loans, which means a 10 percent down payment, a 10-percent second mortgage and an 80-percent first mortgage.

The closing costs. Once you decide on a house and a lender, make sure to get an estimate of the closing costs. If they seem high, get an estimate from another lender and compare the two. If the seller is willing to pay points for you, you can lower your interest rate.

The upkeep. Owning a house can be a lot of fun if you are a fix-up kind of person and love to design rooms and have a lot of free time. On the other hand, if your life is just one big rush, you will probably end up paying a bundle for repairs and upkeep. It's a good idea to set up a fund for such emergencies as soon as you can after you move in.

The house's value. Choose the right neighborhood and school district and your house will probably rise in value year after year. Choose the wrong neighborhood or state or time and the value of your house may plummet. In other words, economic forces beyond your control generally determine what happens to housing prices. So when you shop for a house look for something you like and can afford in an area that appeals to you and your children. Read the business section of local newspapers to keep up with local economic trends.

Economic problems. Once you own a house, make sure you pay the mortgage on time each month. This seems like simple common sense but tens of thousands of households fail to do so and go on to ruin their credit record or lose their house. When looking for a house, if you have doubts about being able to afford it, don't buy. Put off the decision until you are on firmer financial footing. And remember, there is nothing wrong with renting. It can be a good choice for those who move around a lot, can't afford to buy a house, don't want to fool with repairs or lawns or prefer living in an apartment in an urban area.

Economic rewards. If all goes well, a house can bring great economic rewards. You may find over time that your equity has grown so large that you can use it to pay for your child's college tuition. Or you may be able to sell the house and use the equity to buy a much better house. Or — well, the list is endless. In fact, a house accounts for the largest portion of wealth in most households.

FROM HGTV

Though staging is status quo in places like the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Los Angeles, it’s a relatively new phenomenon most everywhere else. To get the scoop on the increasingly popular practice, we spoke with Barb Schwarz, an interior designer and real estate broker who developed the staging concept more than 30 years ago and who now serves as president of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

What is "staging," exactly?
Staging is anything you do to prepare your home for sale and to make it more attractive to a buyer’s eye. Staging helps present a home in its best possible light, and includes cleaning, de-cluttering, adding color and arranging furnishings. It’s a little bit of theater–your property is the "set" and furniture and accessories are "props." It’s different from decorating, which is personalizing a space. Staging is about neutralizing a home so that it will appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers. It’s selling your space, not your things. Buyers need to be able to "mentally move in"–to picture themselves living in your home–before they’ll make an offer. We always tell people that the way they live in their home and the way they sell it are two different things. Think of it this way: You wouldn’t sell your car without having it detailed first. Staging is the same idea–it’s detailing for your house.

How common is staging?
In certain markets in cities like San Francisco and Seattle, nearly every home is staged. Staging is also taking off in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago. Nationally, only about one in five properties on the market is staged, though that number is rising as the concept spreads.

How much does staging cost?
It varies, depending on where you live and the scope of the staging. A consultation with a professional stager, who’ll tour your home and then give you a punch list of things to do before putting it on the market, runs a few hundred dollars. Hands-on staging services can cost anywhere from $1,000 for a small condo where they’re mostly using items you already own to $10,000 or more for a high-end home in an expensive market where they’re bringing in all-new furnishings. But the average cost for home staging in most markets is about $1,500 to $3,000.

How does staging work?
I’ve staged over 5,000 homes, and I’ve never seen sellers not recoup their investment. In fact, we did a survey recently and found that staged listings sold up to seven times faster (in six days compared to 45, on average) and for 17 to 25 percent more than comparable unstaged properties–and I’ve seen a few staged homes go for 50 percent more. Even in slow markets, staged homes sell while others sit. It’s a small investment with a potentially huge return.

Barb Schwarz for HGTV

Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate Blog - Posted by Steel Green (guest writer) on October 1st, 2007

As a first time home buyer this has got to be a frightening yet giddy time in your life. Frightening at first look, because of all the bad coverage in the media about the Real Estate bubbleMoody-Ratings-Fiasco Sep-07 burst or the doom and gloom from the mortgage mayhem. True it has cased the industry to tighten up lending practices and that just means you as a first time home buyer have to do your home work. This is where having a trusted advisor like a Real Estate Professional guide you through the process. Ok now for the giddy part. It is a Buyers market. You might be thinking, well if I wait another month or two the prices will go down even farther and I will get the better deal. Well that really depends on the house you want.

If you are looking for a New Home in Tampa, Builders are bending over backwards to alleviate the excess houses and trim their inventory. However, these deals will not last for ever and as we get into the Holiday seasons these New Home deals will slow to a trickle. As with the existing Greater Tampa home market you will also find many home owners frustrated at the time their homes have been on the market. They will do one of two things. Lower the price one more time in an effort to sell before the Holidays or they will take the home off the Market entirely.

So now is the time for a First Time Home Buyer to purchase a New Home in Tampa. October and the first part of November will also prove to be your best bets for existing home deals in the Greater Tampa Florida Bay Area.

Forbes.com: Housing Trends
Best Places For Real Estate Deals
Matt Woolsey, 10.08.07, 12:01 AM ET

Home sales have sunk to their lowest levels since 2001. Investors are jumping ship, foreclosures are mounting and lenders are exercising caution.

Still, there are areas of the county where it makes sense for some to buy. That's because, in a market slump, sellers eager to unload their homes often accept less money from buyers. New construction also slows. Both bode well for those hoping to score a deal--if the market in which they are buying is expected to experience increased sales.

To find such places, we paired with Moody's Economy.com to research current home sales patterns and sales projections in the country's 40 biggest real estate markets. Based on models that estimated 2008 housing inventory, sales rates and turnover, we arrived at a list of markets that are experiencing price stalls or declines, but where over the coming year are expected to provide deals for buyers.

In Pictures: Best Places For Real Estate Deals

A buyers' market in the purest sense is one where there are far more sellers than buyers, creating a supply and demand dynamic that benefits those looking to invest in a home. However, by that definition, a floundering market like Detroit is a good buyers' market because prices are dropping and inventory is high.

"A market with declining prices and few sales is a strong buyers' market," says Anthony Sanders, professor of real estate finance at Arizona State University. "But it is also a risky market given that prices could decline further."

With that in mind, we required the slumping or neutral markets on our list to have expected volume and turnover increases, based on sales and inventory models run by Moody's Economy.com.

The results turn out three types of markets and three types of deals.

Attractive Arrangements
The first are undervalued, affordable markets like Fort Worth, Texas, which haven't felt huge, post-boom price corrections, but where there is an expected acceleration in sales volume, making now the time to buy.

Second are markets like Long Island, N.Y., and Washington D.C. These are traditionally strong areas that are recovering from speculation, especially in the D.C. condo market and by Long Island's second-home buyers. Once these areas stabilize, the market as a whole should return to health.

"Long Island is continuing to slip, but a modest amount," says Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, a New York-based real estate appraisal and consultancy firm. "In [Long Island] the upper-end market was the market of choice for speculation and tear downs."

Third are riskier markets such as Las Vegas or Orlando, Fla., which are experiencing lending and inventory problems but relative to regional markets--in Las Vegas' case, Los Angeles and in Orlando's case Tampa and Miami--are expecting to see significant pickups in sales activity, according to Moody's, and therefore become better buyers' markets because of a relatively lower risk.

But economists caution that while over the next year the dust may settle in these 10 spots, buyers should be prepared for future swings. This is especially true in the case of riskier markets like Orlando and Las Vegas, where the expected increase in sales volume and housing turnover doesn't necessarily mean that the price trough is imminent.

"Housing market activity revives when house prices decline sufficiently to restore housing affordability and entice buyers to step up and make a purchase," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "Some markets are already approaching those price points, in many others prices will have to decline much more to get to that point."

When it comes to real estate, the questions on everyone's lips are: How low is low, and when's the perfect time to buy back in?

That moment has passed in Seattle and Charlotte--both metros hit bottom in the first quarter of 2006 and have since posted price gains of 12.3% and 6.3%, respectively, according to National Association of Realtors (NAR) data.

Of the 40 largest metros that have yet to bottom out, which are ripe for investment? Philadelphia and New Orleans. Based on housing inventory and local economic conditions, both should hit price troughs by year's end and bounce back with moderate gains around 4% in 2008.

In Pictures: Most Resilient U.S. Real Estate Markets

Video: Best Bounce-Back Markets

In markets expected to recover more slowly, such as Boston and Denver, low buyer confidence coupled with a surplus of housing stock has lengthened the slump. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun points out that buyers are looking for clear signs of a market bottom and are content to wait on the sidelines until then.

It's easy to see why. Most of the country's real estate markets are feeling the effects of overproduction. A strong market hovers near a 1.5% vacancy rate, but the national average currently stands at 2.8% and in cities such as Miami, Atlanta and Denver, figures hang around 3.5%. In addition, every nugget of good news (a May Commerce Department report said that new-home sales are at a 14-year high) comes with bad news (median price growth is at a 10-year low).

So which other metro area markets stand the best chance of recovery, and when will that upturn occur?

Behind The Numbers
Market corrections follow three basic recovery patterns. A V-shaped recovery where a market experiences a sharp, fast decline but comes out strong once it hits bottom; a U-shaped recovery, where prices decline gradually and recover slowly; and an L-shaped curve, a hard, fast fall with paltry price bounceback following the market trough.

The differences between a V-shaped market and a U-shaped one has to do with barriers to growth. High vacancy rates and high investor share can hurt a market, but if the local economy remains strong and housing stock affordable it's only a matter of how long it takes to absorb the excess inventory.

Tampa is a perfect candidate for a V-shaped recovery, according to research from Moody's Economy.com, an economic analysis, forecasting and credit risk firm. The local economy remains strong, and subprime lending is relatively low. Tampa's problem? A high investor share that lead to high vacancy rates. When the market turned sour in 2005, more than 25% of Tampa homes were owned as investment properties. Investors are quicker to flee during a downturn, thus creating a glut of available housing stock. In Tampa's case, vacancy rates now stand at 3.5%.

"As investors exit, the market revives," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at West Chester, Pa.-based research firm Moody's Economy.com, as fewer speculative buyers results in a more stable market. "Tampa's a pretty affordable market and first-time buyers can come in once prices fall."

Based on Moody's Economy projections, Tampa should burn off its excess inventory and hit a price trough in the first quarter of 2008, at which point prices are expected to increase by 10.6% the following year.

These projections take into account housing affordability, vacancy rates, the strength of the local economy and job market, investor share in 2005 and the share of subprime mortgages. Data comes from Moody's, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve's Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

Predicting the bottom of any asset market, especially real estate, is a difficult thing. While these projections are based on sound data and advanced modeling by Moody's, no one can predict futures markets with absolute certainty.

Other Bounce Backs
Like Tampa, Phoenix is similarly afflicted by high investor share (26.1%) and it has a vacancy rate over 3%. Good affordability rates and a surging job market suggest that once Phoenix bottoms out, price growth will be strong. Moody's projection model has Phoenix reaching its price trough in the fourth quarter of 2008 and then growing by 7.7% the following year.

Slower recovery rates are expected in markets such as Minneapolis and Boston, where a slumping local economy, slow job growth and negative migration numbers hamper long term prospects. Along with other U-shaped markets like Sacramento, that have double-digit subprime lending share, Zandi says it's going to be harder for these markets to get going again.

hat doesn't necessarily mean V-shaped markets are in the clear. The labor markets in cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego, whose future economic success will be critical to recovery, are heavily in housing-related industries, according to Moody's. So long as those economies can weather their respective corrections, they should be all right.

"These markets are going to experience more substantial declines in the coming year," says Zandi. "Gauging the bottom is a very intrepid affair and the job market is very important to recovery."

If you're searching for property in Tampa, luck is on your side. Too many listed homes and not enough buyers means you've got the upper hand.

Want all-new appliances or $20,000 knocked off the asking price before you sign? Chances are, sellers there are willing to comply.

The same can be said for Minneapolis and Kansas City. All three, like Tampa, currently benefit buyers, thanks to an overabundance of supply and low sales rate.

In Pictures: Top Home Buyers' Markets

Video: Best Markets For Buyers Or Sellers

The easiest way to judge our list is to examine the area's housing supply vs. demand. A good measurement? Take the current rate of sales and figure out how long it would take to burn off the excess inventory at that rate.

If that measure is low, houses are selling quickly. If it's high, houses are waiting on the market and ready to be bargained down.

To determine which of the country's real estate markets most benefit buyers, we looked at data from Moody's Economy.com and the National Association of Realtors. We tracked excess inventory and the change in sales rate over the last year to gauge the relative tightening or loosening of the market. Then a measure of price stability was applied to prevent the list from being a run-down of sinking ships.

The Findings:
What resulted were rankings that measure current housing markets relative to a completely in-balance market. New York's No. 9 spot doesn't mean you can expect to pick up a Fifth Avenue apartment at a rock-bottom price.

It means that based on the expansion of Gotham's housing stock, especially in the outlying metro area, there are a disproportionately high number of sellers for buyers, and as a result, properties are staying on the market longer. Prices then often drop. New York housing is never cheap, but at present buyers have more bargaining power than sellers.

his is especially evident in Tampa. Of American cities with over 500,000 in population, it is best for buyers. Florida in general has been going through a vast market correction due to overbuilding, as well as shifting insurance underwriting and lending conditions. Miami finished third, and if Sarasota, Palm Bay, Tallahassee or Pensacola had larger populations, they all would have made the top 10.

While the Tampa market has yet to bottom out, the silver lining for buyers is that it is a highly resilient market. Most of the fall-out in Tampa can be attributed to its high investor share, which is correctable given the city's good economic and job-growth projections.

Likewise, Chicago, at No. 5, has felt the effects of a housing supply growing in excess of demand. Brokers there say it's been a slow year thus far, and Moody's data supports that. Chicago ranked seventh worst for listings outpacing sales and fifth worst for the tightening rate of the market.

Milwaukee came in eighth due to moderate scores in sales-to-listings ratio. The city does, after all, have an extremely low vacancy rate of 1.1%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Milwaukee market's future doesn't look quite as rosy, though. Its lack of an inventory has Moody's projecting a price trough for the city in the third quarter of 2008, but based on local economic and job creation problems, that recovery is only expected to be 0.4%-- an "L-shaped" recovery that doesn't rejuvenate the market.

For the overall state of the housing market, it is extremely important to see how much inventory these buyers' markets can burn off between now and October, when the market typically slows down. If sales don't pick up and work out inventory issues, expect to see significant price declines.