Mortgage rates remain at near eight month lows as strong demand in the bond market drove the yield on the ten year Treasury note below 3.20% before rising slightly to 3.25% today on a renewed rally in stocks. The rate on the benchmark thirty-year is hovering right at 5% with no points and the fifteen-year stands at 4.375. Thirty-year rates actually were pushing 6% back in the spring so this is quite an improvement and rather unexpected. The general consensus has been that as the economy pulls out of recession and as signs of economic growth become more evident, rates would rise as inflationary pressures mounted, but this has not materialized.
Tag: panama city beach condos
Episode #25 – Gulf-Front 4 Bed Condo $399k
This week’s features:
- Deal 1 – 4/3 Gulf-Front Condo in Majestic only $399.9k
- Deal 2 – Huge 2,700 SF Home in The Glades only $119 per foot
- Deal 3 – Tapestry Park! Super Cute Home, Crazy Master Bath only $314.9k
The Beach Show is your ONLY internet TV show all about Real Estate on Panama City Beach.
Download the podcast
Remember, it doesn’t cost anything to work with us if you are a buyer.
Click the “more” tag for show notes and pictures.
Call us at 850-527-5651 to see these properties or for anything else you need regarding real estate in Panama City Beach.
Continue reading “Episode #25 – Gulf-Front 4 Bed Condo $399k”
Episode #23 – 3/2 Waterfront Townhome, $159k, 2 Boat Slips Xtra Lot
This week’s features:
- Deal 1 – 3/2 Waterfront Townhome, $159k, 2 Boat Slips Xtra Lot
- Deal 2 – 3/2 DSF Home in Palmetto Trace for $140/foot
- Deal 3 – 2/2 Gulf-front Condo for less than $200k
The Beach Show is your ONLY internet TV show all about Real Estate on Panama City Beach.
Download the podcast
Remember, it doesn’t cost anything to work with us if you are a buyer.
Click the “more” tag for show notes and pictures.
Call us at 850-527-5651 to see these properties or for anything else you need regarding real estate in Panama City Beach.
Show Notes
Deal 1 – 3/2 Waterfront Townhome, $159k, 2 Boat Slips Xtra Lot
- List Price: $159,000
- Square Feet: 1,475
- Price/SqFt: $107.80
- 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bath
- Built in 1986
- This is the second time we featured this property. The first time it was listed at $199k, and it was a steal then, but the price was just dropped to an insane $159,000. This place is move-in ready, ultra clean and an absolute steal as it comes with an extra lot right next door, two boat slips (one of them is covered) and it is right on the water in a great quiet neighborhood. This deal is just amazing.
Deal 2 – 3/2 DSF Home in Palmetto Trace for $140/foot
- List Price: $229,900
- Square Feet: 1,642
- Price/SqFt: $140.01
- 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bath
- Built in 2005
- Palmetto Trace is one of the greatest neighborhoods in Panama City Beach. With underground utilities, sidewalks, two community pools and tons of families, this is a great place to raise a family. This is one of the least expensive homes in the subdivision and move-in ready. High ceilings and a split floor plan make this a great opportunity to get into a newer home for not a lot of money.
Deal 3 – 2/2 Gulf-front Condo for less than $200k
- List Price: $199,900
- Square Feet: 975
- Price/SqFt: 205.03
- 2 Bedrooms, 2 Bath
- Built in 2006
- Gulf-front condos are just getting so CHEAP! Majestic is one of the best amenitized condos on Panama City Beach with a huge 100+ seat movie theater, HUGE workout center with steam room and sauna, conference facilities, several pools, indoor and out, pool side bar and grill, and so much more. This condo is in great shape and ready to use.
Call us at 850-527-5651 to see these properties or for anything else you need regarding real estate in Panama City Beach.
The Beach Show Secrets to Success
This is really not a tip, rather an explanation of what Jason and I are up to and how and why we do the thing we do (sounds like a song). As many of you know, for the past 19 weeks we have been having a great time doing thebeachshow.com. It is the ONLY INTERNET TV SHOW ALL ABOUT REAL ESTATE on Panama City Beach. If you know both of us and many of you do, I do not have to tell you who the techno brain child is. . . AND it ain’t me.
Realtors and others call me each week to find out how can they get on our goofy little show and does it cost anything for their property to be featured? So I thought an explanation was in order. Jason came up with the idea that this format would be an incredible, far reaching way to get the word out about hot properties and be an incredible marketing tool. It has far surpassed that and we are having a great time while doing it. WE do not charge any money for listings to be on our site and we have a high integrity level of what makes the grade for the show. I am in charge of searching the internet and the streets in hot pursuit of what I think is a great deal. We consider price, rental dollars, affordability and basically finding what the real customers are looking for. Bottom line, if it looks great to me I bet you will like it too.
Each week I pick 3 great deals and many times they are not our listings so I call and get permission from the listing Realtor and we go shoot a video. WE give a very informal preview of the home and why we think it is a hot deal. It is not rehearsed as you can tell and we just want to be fun and informative. It is our quest for people to feel like we are having a conversation with friends about the Real Estate that we find while living and loving our beach. We have met so many nice people because of this adventure and have built great relationships with other Realtors as well. We just love it when one of the properties sells whether it is ours or not. It is kind of our version of paying it forward.
We shoot every Tuesday, rain or shine, and Jason spends the better part of that day and night uploading and editing the video. About midnight I usually write my Real Estate tips because who wants to do it early? Thanks to Hunter Palmer each week for providing us with a Mortage minute. You will find thebeachshow.com on the air and up and running each Wednesday at 11:00 AM and again on PCBdaily the following Monday. Please feel free to share it with your friends and let us know what you think.
You will notice that sometimes we keep visiting an area and it seems that some areas become hot areas because the price has finally hit the point where people start buying. A perfect example of that would be Wild Heron. Last year much of nothing sold and this year it has busted wide open with over 20 houses and condos selling since January, not to mention the lots are moving now as well. I am excited to say that condos on the beach are moving too and the buyers just keep on coming.
We so appreciative of all the Realtors who have been so kind to cooperate with us and also are tickled when they call us up and say, “Karen I think I have a hot one.” If we think it is a super deal then we may switch properties at the last minute and go shoot that one. Last week was great example as we were heading in one direction and found out about a foreclosure that just hit the market we turned the jeep around and headed west. Of the 3 properties that we featured in Episode 18 we are happy to report that 2 out of 3 are under contract. Wow you just gotta love it!!!!
What an exciting time to be a Realtor, no more business as usual. But who wants business as usual, NOT ME. I love that we are having to stretch and grow and reach and climb and find different ways of reaching our market. I think the thing I most like about challenging times is the power and the persistence that I see in people. Creativity is born and new ways of doing life are fostered. Hellen Keller put it just right for all of us today. . . “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” I do not know about you but I am not much for creeping and it is a good thing because our market today calls for us to SOAR!!!!!!
The Mystery of the Term 'Condo-tel'
Since I am getting so many questions these days regarding condos and condo-tels and since the secondary market for these properties, i.e. Fannie and Freddie, has all but disappeared, I thought I would try and clarify why a project will or will not fly. First, a condo-tel is not a new concept. It has always been a type of property designation we use along with single family detached, duplex, etc. The problem is that for many years, Fannie and Freddie did not adequately identify beach-front, resort-style condominiums for what they really were. So what makes a condo-tel? Actually, any number of things. I have heard many times that a project is not a condo-tel because it doesn’t have an on-site rental desk. While an on-site rental desk would classify a project as a condo-tel the absence of one does not make it immune. If they have a website that advertises rentals it is a condo-tel. If an owner is required to rent per the bylaws it is a condo-tel. If it has daily maid service it is a condo-tel. So if a project doesn’t have any of these things then it is okay with Fannie and Freddie and fixed-rate financing is available? Not necessarily.
There is another classification we use for condominiums and this is the term ‘warrantable.’ Warrantable refers to whether it can be warranted as sellable to Fannie or Freddie meaning it meets their criteria for an acceptable condominium project. So what makes a condominium ‘non-warrantable’? If the developer is still in control of the HOA it is non-warrantable. If more than 50% of the units are investor owned it is non-warrantable. If one entity owns more than 10% of the total units it is non-warrantable. If the project has pending litigation against it or if a large percentage of owners are delinquent in their HOA dues, or any number of other factors cited by the appraiser can lead to a project being classified as non-warrantable. Every once in a while we come across a project that we can warrant but they are rare to say the least.
Between a project having one or more condo-tel attributes or having one or more of the non-warrantable attributes, you can see that most every condo here on the beach has no secondary market financing available. This is why a few banks like Vision have developed alternative vehicles to get these properties financed. Our portfolio 3/1 and 5/1 ARMs are not a panacea. Yes, they carry a certain amount of risk and the rates are at a premium over the current thirty-year fixed-rates, but, in the absence of a secondary market, these ARMs are the best alternative for providing financing to the buyer while protecting the bank from interest rate risk and meeting our future capital requirements. It is our hope that in there will eventually be a thawing in the secondary market for condos and that our products can provide a bridge to that future. In the meantime, we will continue to lend on these properties because we have a vested interest in seeing them sell and we have a firm belief that the collateral is sound.
The Secret of What Your House is NOT Worth – Revealed
Most of us Realtors face this at one time or another so I think we need to bring it out in the light. How in the world do we price the home correctly without sending the seller running screaming down the street right into the arms of another Realtor? I already told you last week that a fellow got really mad at me when I told him what I thought his house would sell for. One minute I was the bearer of information that he wanted and the next I was an enemy to be reckoned with and I suspect I am not the only Realtor who has had this experience lately.
Continue reading “The Secret of What Your House is NOT Worth – Revealed”
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