Episode #13 – Gulf-front House for $850k

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Show Notes

Deal 1 – Brand New Home, Needs Nothing for less than $200k

List Price: $192,900
Square Feet: 1,500
Price/SqFt: $128.60
3 Bedrooms, 2 Bath
Brand Spankin’ New – Just completed
Looking for a home with great green grass, sprinkler system, fenced in yard, brand new inside and out, including EVERYTHING and has NEVER been lived in? This is the home for you. This home was completed earlier this year and was under contract set to close recently, but everything fell through on the buyer’s side last minute. I love this home. Everything was done very cleanly and there is so much room to move around. The lot is huge with a huge, grassed, fenced in back yard. When you think of a great quality Florida starter home, this is what you think of. Proximity to the beach is great, you could walk to a public beach access in under 5 minutes.

Deal 2 – Gulf-front HOUSE for $850k

List Price: $849,000
Square Feet: 3,100
Price/SqFt: $273.87
7 Bedrooms, 3.5 Bath
Built in 1976
Old beach house with 50 feet on the Gulf of Mexico. Total fixer-upper, but it’s listed at the same price vacant lots are listed for. Individual Gulf-front lots are a precious commodity in Panama City Beach and this is a rare opportunity to have something very few others have. This is a foreclosure listing.

Deal 3 – Absolute Steal in Wild Heron with Rare Full Golf Membership at Shark’s Tooth

List Price: $334,900
Square Feet: 2,192
Price/SqFt: 152.78
2 Bedrooms, 2 Bath
Built in 2006
If you are looking for that high-end neighborhood in Panama City Beach that’s new, Wild Heron is it. Truly one-of-a-kind, Wild Heron boasts the only highend feel and world-class amenities in the area. This home has it all, including a two car garage, separate dining a kitchen areas, study area for an office, huge bedrooms and very awesome full wall sliding glass doors that bring the beautiful nature preserve behind the property right into your huge living room. Of course, the huge deal here is that the price includes a full golf membership as it was originally set up to Shark’s Tooth Golf Course.

Call us at 850-527-5651 to see these properties or for anything else you need regarding real estate in Panama City Beach.

11 Reason's Short Sales Take FOREVER

One of my friends had a customer that is demanding for the bank to hurry up and get the short sale done, they are tired of waiting. I bet I am hearing some hearty “Amens” from all my Realtor buddies. And also as life would have it I called my short sale departments to see how my little short sales are coming along so I can report back to my apprehensive buyers. As in most things in life there is a flow to it, a cycle that all things go through to reach their peak or completion. So it is with a “short sale”. Please know that this is straight from a company that I am working with and I am NOT going to name any names. I have had a couple of easy ones but generally it has been taking from 3 to 6 months to get an approval to move to close.

Seller decides he can no longer make payments so he list property with you and gives you an approval letter to speak to his lender. He gathers all of his financials, his budget, his taxes, his last 4 months of bank statements, and his hardship letter. You send all of this in to the bank and you wait and you wait and you wait.
NOTE: it will many times take days before your authorization letter gets to where it needs to be. (this is the easy part)
You are enthusiastic and excited because you get a buyer and grateful that buyer and seller have agreed to the short sale price and you have signed all the forms and additional short sale addendums. You and the other agent try your best to brace the buyer and the seller for the long months ahead.
Offer along with HUD-1 and any other updated documents that the lender needs are sent in and the fun begins. I have a great title company that helps me gather this information. (McNeese)
(Real life example) Contract goes into the company on April 7, 2009, you call each week and the lending company tells you that they are about 4 weeks behind on uploading documents to the system. You continue to call each week and they can’t find it and suggest you send it in again. You get excited because a BPO (Broker Property Opinion) is ordered somewhere along the way.
Now to make it real fun I forgot to tell you that there may be 2 mortgage companies to deal with so we do this times 2!!!! The first mortgage company now tells you that they are close to getting their deal approved and they ask for explanations of customers finances and additional documents that you send in with a gleeful heart. They also inform you that while they are maybe only a month away from completion and it is now June 25 they let you know, oh by the way. . . we want you to call the other mortgage company and tell them that although they are owed over $200,000 on the second note that they will be glad to give them $3,000 of the dollars upon close. The first mortgage holder wants the Realtor to get something in writing from the second mortgage holder. . . now it gets real fun.
(Real life example) Keep in mind that although the buyer knows they need to be patient, it is hard for them and they wonder what in the world is anyone doing. . . is anyone doing ANYTHING? ???? On June 25th second mortgage company informs you that the contract that you sent in on April 7 was opened and reviewed for real on June 15th and by June 24th it was finally in the hands of the FIRST PHASE negotiator. Keep in mind that although first mortgage is almost finished we have to wait on the second. Meantime fees are mounting if the buyer is behind on payments and they usually are.
The first phase negotiator will keep it approximately 15 days to make sure all documents are there that are needed and of course it has been awhile so they need to be updated so you gather the needed paper work and send it in again.
IF all is well the file now goes to the SECOND PHASE negotiator who has 30 days to review. If he finds all things well, the file now travels to the investor.
IF all is well now the investor has from 2 to 30 days to review the file..
Shortly before close they let the seller in on what they are willing to do for them in the way of accepting a lesser amount owed and what the seller contribution needs to be and if all is agreed upon then we all move to close. Oh and one more thing the lender expects the Realtors to take a reduced commission and they do and they all live happily ever after.
If the lender and the seller do not agree and if the buyer gets tired of waiting then it is back to the beginning of the short sale life cycle.

This sale portrayed in my “real life example” is projected to have an answer according to the second mortgage company around September if all goes well. So thus the life cycle if all survive it will be approximately 6 months!!! My purpose in sharing is not to discourage but more to bring attention to the fact that a short sale is anything but short and the more inventory that is sold this way the more difficult it will become. There are no short cuts (no pun intended at all) so just take a deep breath and be very kind to anyone involved in this adventure. I am actually enjoying all that I am learning from this and if patience is not your virtue it will become so. I left out some of the duties that a Realtor will do along the way because my main focus was to let the consumer know why it takes so long so that you can just sit back and enjoy your life while the lenders, Realtors and title companies are working the deal.

Fireworks on Grand Lagoon for the 4th of July!

Restaurant owners and Marinas come together to make history on historic Grand Lagoon.

July 4, 2009 Panama City Beach, FL: Capt. Anderson’s restaurant, Boatyard restaurant, The Treasure Ship restaurant, Lighthouse Marina and Pirates Cover Marina are reaching deep in their pockets to celebrate the 4^th of July in spectacular fashion on Grand Lagoon. “We’re making a little history on this historic old Lagoon,” said Sparky Sparkman, co-owner of Boatyard restaurant, “We have hired an awesome pyrotechnic group from Tennessee, Pyro Shows, Inc; these guys are going to put on an amazing show!” (www.pyroshows.com)

According to Lansden E. Hill, Jr., President and CEO of Pyro Shows, Inc., the Grand Lagoon fireworks show will begin at approximately 8:30pm.

“It’s going to be better than going to Disney,” according to Lisa Todd of the Treasure Ship, “I wish we had it back when I was a kid. Can you imagine? Especially here at the Ship – we’ve got pirates running around a big wooden ship, face painting going on – and then you add fireworks to the picture! Amazing!”

Steve Counts, of Counts Real Estate Group said, “Grand Lagoon is the perfect place for a fireworks show. I don’t know why we waited so long to do it! You’ve got the three marinas… Treasure Island Marina, Pirate’s Cove Marina and Lighthouse Marina… and the best restaurants on the beach lining the lagoon, with docks all the way around. There’s plenty of parking and tons of places for people to watch the show.”

“We’ve been here on the lagoon since 1967, and there’s never been a fireworks show on the 4^th,” reported Yonnie Patrons of Capt. Anderson’s restaurant. “When we had the kick off for Grand Lagoon National Tournament last year, we got a taste of what it could be when Bill Spann did the fireworks for that event, and we’ve all been talking about it ever since … how nice it would be to have fireworks for the 4^th. A lot of planning, a lot of work, and a lot of money has gone into it, and we’re all very excited about it. It’s been a lot of fun working with all our neighbors here on the lagoon to make it happen, too. I think this show will be the closest you can get to the actual fireworks action, and I really believe it will become the number one fireworks celebration in Northwest Florida – so, a lot of people are looking forward to being a part of history; they can say they were there the first time the FIRST 4^th of July fireworks lit up the sky over Grand Lagoon!”

“The fireworks will be launched from a platform at the center of the lagoon, so you have a spectacular 360 degree view. You can watch from a waterfront table at Capt. Anderson’s… or pick a seat, upstairs or down, at the Boatyard… I think our friends at The Treasure Ship may have the most spectacular views… they’ve got Hooks dockside, the Main Dining Room with those incredible floor to ceiling windows and, then, they have the very top of the ship – you can see the whole lagoon from up there,” Toni Davis of Boatyard explained, “Of course, we’ve got great views from Boatyard, too! We don’t usually do reservations at Boatyard, but we’ve had so many requests for waterfront tables on the 4^thsince the word got out about the fireworks. But, you don’t need a reservation to find a great spot on the docks to watch the show – or, you can come by boat.”

Housing Market Bottoms Out

Mortgage rates eased slightly this week as the bond market was reassured by comments form Chinese officials who indicated they still had a taste for US Treasury debt and that the dollar would remain their primary foreign currency reserve. Thirty year mortgage rates settled to just below 5.50% to 5.375% as the yield on the ten year Treasury fell back to 3.5% after pushing 4% two weeks ago. Fifteen year mortgage rates were even more attractive with the no point coupon at 4.75%. With inflation in check and the stock market sputtering I don’t see any significant upward pressure on rates in the short-run. There will be several economic reports over the next week that could create some daily volatility as investors attempt to determine whether the economy is turning the corner or still stuck in a rut.

A report released on Tuesday showed that we may have finally reached the bottom of the housing market nationally. The S&P Case Shiller Index of home prices, though down 18.1% from the same month a year ago, showed only a .6% drop from March to April. This is nearly three quarters lower than the previous month’s decline of 2.2%. The Case Shiller index has shown a monthly decline for every month since July of 2006. Yale Economist and co-creator of the index, Robert Shiller, called it, ” a striking improvement in the rate of home price decline.” The good news was tempered, however, by another report that showed more prime mortgage loans became delinquent in the latest quarter and a report on consumer confidence showed a surprise dip. It will be interesting to see in this week’s report from the National Association of Realtors on pending home sales whether more evidence of a housing recovery can be seen.