The Bosshardt Blog

Coming July 24-26: The Open Door Home Sale

Posted by Mitchell Martin, REALTOR®, ABR®, CSP, GRI, Bosshardt Realty, 06/10/2009

As you know, Bosshardt Realty Services is committed to doing everything we can to promote our Seller's homes to as many potential buyers as possible, in the shortest amount of time. To that end, I wanted to tell you about an event taking place July 24-26, 2009, hosted by the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors. The Open Door Home Sale open house extravaganza is a tremendous opportunity for Sellers to showcase their homes.

This very special event will be supported by an extensive marketing campaign including TV, radio, newspaper, and Internet advertising. In addition to this marketing, over 1,000 Realtor members will be spreading the word. Cox Media has agreed to do over 1,000 spots from June 30th through July 26th to promote this event to the public. The Gainesville Sun will promote this event on their high traffic website (www.gainesville.com) and will create a new website (Open Door Home Sale) to feature just those homes that will be participating. They will also do multiple half page and quarter page ads promoting the event and a four page pull out the weekend of the event showcasing all the homes that are participating. This event is an unprecedented effort to GET BUYERS MOTIVATED and to stimulate the local real estate market!

If you want your home to benefit from this phenomenal level of promotional support, I urge you to take part in the Open Door Home Sale event. Your home must be OPEN with a Realtor between the hours of 2-7 pm July 24-26, 2009, and you must offer a 3% incentive to buyers during those days. This incentive can be in the form of a 3% price reduction, 3% toward closing costs and pre-paids, or 3% in seller concessions (roof repair, carpeting allowance, etc.). If you want your home included in the Open Door Home Sale event, please contact your Bosshardt Realtor. There is a non-refundable $50 deposit to hold your reservation due by June 30th. The remaining $150 non-refundable fee is due by July 10th.

If you need more information or have questions you can visit my website at http://www.gainesvillenewhomes.com.

My Property Taxes are Too High. Can I Lower Them?

Posted by Aaron Bosshardt, COO, Bosshardt Realty, 06/10/2009

Gary Schneider sent this to me this morning. Important news for all of us real estate owners:

Good Morning,
Did you know that House Bill 521 was passed and signed into law? The Bill transfers the burden of proof from the homeowner to the Property Appraiser's office in property value disputes. In the past, if you wanted to challenge the Property Appraiser's assessment, you had to prove he was wrong; now the Property Appraiser will no longer have the assumption of correctness, so he will now have to prove he is right. Over the next five years, Florida homeowners and owners of business, rental, or second-home properties are expected to save more than $2.1 billion due to the change in the law.

Gary Schneider

After receiving this email, I called the Alachua County Property Appraiser's office and spoke with JD Durrance. Isn't it funny how there are always at least two good sides to every story. He knew of the bill immediately and shared some concerns that, although this bill was presented as helping the everyday consumer, it might actually end up benefiting the big companies that are hired to fight property valuations for large scale properties. JD reminded me that his office always tries to work with people and rarely goes in front of the Magistrate.

JD shared with me the 8 Factors that determine the valuation criteria for properties. If you do have legitmate concerns about the valuation of your property, prepare to speak in these terms, as that should help your case whether you are working it out or taking it to the review board.

It would be interesting to hear from one of these companies, and I've heard they don't settle or negotiate. They go straight to the value adjustment hearing. With the changes to whom has the burden of proof and the prevailing party's entitlement to attorney's fees, a small, cash-strapped county like Alachua may not have the resources to take on these corporate giants. 

On the surface, this looked like much needed relief for our local community homeowners. Only time will tell.

 

 

How Do You Get The First Time Home Buyer $8000 Credit? And Can You Get It at Closing?

On May 12, HUD Secretary Shawn Donovan announced to a group of REALTORS that very soon they would have an option for HUD borrowers to monetize the $8,000 tax credit at the closing table. That was almost a month ago, and now we hear that officially you can use the money for "some" closing costs.

The gist of it is that you still have to have the minimum 3.5% down payment in order to close. NAR just released a great 8 page booklet on the credits as of the end of May. So it's factual and timely.

Download Government_affairs_tax_credit_brochure_052709

If you don't like this book or perhaps don't want to trust something published by NAR about taxes, the best direct resource is www.irs.gov. Just type in First Time Home Buyer tax credits on their page and plenty of info will show up.

Finally Renters/Tenants Get Much Needed Protection From Foreclosures!

  

Long overdue in Florida and unfortunately with no help from the state legislature, both tentants and property managers can now find relief in the new Federal Bill enacted last week:

President Obama signed S. 896, P.L. 111-22, on May 20, 2009. This bill includes a nationwide 90 day pre-eviction notice requirement for tenants in foreclosed properties. The provisions of the bill are effective on enactment, May 20, 2009.

Specifically, the new law will require that the immediate successor in interest at foreclosure

1. provide bona fide tenants with 90 days notice prior to eviction and
2. allow bona fide tenants with leases to occupy the property until the end of the lease term except the lease can be terminated on 90 days notice if the unit is sold to a purchaser who will occupy the property.

With the length of time that foreclosures take, this should generally ensure that tenants will be able to occupy their properties until the end of their lease term.

Unfortunately there is no additonal protection for renters who lease from private owners with respect to their security deposit. Renters are entitled to a refund based on the relative condition of the property on move out to its move in condition. However, private landlords in foreclosure have been known to liquidate this money, with little to no effective recourse for the tenant.

If you are renting from a Professional property manager, you should make sure you notify them of a foreclosure notice immediately.

 

Home prices see biggest drop in 21 year history of Case-Shiller; Gainesville properties fare better

Posted by Aaron Bosshardt, COO, Bosshardt Realty, 05/26/09

According to the Case-Shiller Index, national home prices in the first quarter of 2009 fell 19.1% from the same period one year earlier. Nationally, home prices have fallen to 2002 levels, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Locally, statistics tracked by our Gainesville-Alachua County MLS show that area Single Familly Residential Home prices declined 11.8 percent. Local prices for Attached units (Condos) fared much worse, falling almost 17 percent. Overall volume for local home sales was down 23.9 percent, and attached volume crashed 67.8 percent. Average days on the market also went from 105 days to 149. For condos, the average days on the market went from 128 to 165 in the first quarter of this year.

Separately ,Zillow is reporting that area prices are down 10 percent according to their own in-house statistics. They say that 80 percent of homeowners now acknowledge that their property has lost value in the last year.

Pricing numbers for the 2nd quarter may not look much better, as it seems as though some banks have taken back some properties and priced them below wholesale in some instances, which makes one wonder why they bothered to take them back in the first place.

There is a silver lining in all these numbers. Inventory is falling steadily, and the rate of new listings to new sales has fallen from 4.4 to 3.8. What will also help is that we are heading into the height of our selling season, so for the intelligent seller who is willing to accept honest, realistic pricing advice, things are looking up these days.