Golf course homes in Ocala Florida. Description of Ocala golf course communities with images, prices, amenities and HOA fees.

Ocala Home Owner Insurance and Roof Age

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I was looking at retirement homes for a buyer I’m working with and the homes he liked were from the late 90’s. A couple of listings boasted that the home had a 30 yr architectural shingle roof in great condition. Maybe the seller and the listing agent don’t understand that a roof older than 20 years is hard to insure regardless of the shingle warranty or the roof’s condition. Last year I decided  to shop for a better price on my home owner insurance after seeing better rates that many of my buyers were getting. My house is a 1998 with a 30 year roof. It was while searching for better rates I personally discovered the difficulty in shopping for insurance with an older but very good condition roof. I did succeed in lowering my insurance cost but I was also rejected by a couple of major Florida insurance carriers. This is a great link to my current insurance agent, Windward Insurance FAQ page on their web site with a question that addresses older roofs in Florida.

Buy a retirement home with no monthly payments

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I have to go to real estate classes to get points for my license renewal. A few weeks ago I had a free day and went to a class about how to buy a retirement home using a reverse mortgage. It was more interesting than I expected.

There is an FHA program called a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage for Purchase. With a large down payment, usually around 50%, you can buy a house with no monthly payments as long as you live in the home. There is of course a monthly charge that gradually eats up the 50% or so equity you have in your house but at the same time the house should be appreciating in value to offset that to some degree.

Why would anyone do this ? A lot of people don’t want a mortgage payment for cash flow reasons on a fixed income. Others don’t want all their cash tied up in a house but don’t want mortgage payments either. Some buyers may have a sizable amount of money from the sale of another home say $100K. However a $100K home usually needs a fair amount of work. Using a HECM the buyer could buy a much newer totally move in ready home in the $175-$200K range with no monthly payments.

What are the negatives ? You gradually lose equity in the home. The closing costs are higher than a traditional loan. The interest rate is higher too.

This isn’t for everyone. Consult your financial planner.

New home prices in Ocala Florida

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Below is an article I saw in the Florida Realtors newsletter that I get every day. It talks about new home prices and how builders can’t afford to build lower priced homes. I think this is something buyers don’t understand. This is especially important to understanding new and newer home prices in Ocala. When the real estate market crashed in 2007 home prices fell too low for builders to build new homes. No one started a major new subdivision until just last year. Many resales were selling for $70 to $90 sqft of living area when new home builders need $110 to $130 sqft minimum to make money. This shows that prices don’t just go down for new homes builders stop building. There still are lower priced homes here but they are from the 80’s to the early 2000’s. Newer homes, 2004+, are at a premium as so few new homes were built during the Great Recession. That is not to say newer home prices here in Ocala are high. In fact they are quite low compared to some other parts of the country.

Lower-priced homes ? Builders can’t do it

CHICAGO – June 13, 2016 – Builders find it increasingly difficult to build a home for under $150,000, despite rising consumer demand for more affordable home options.

The median sales price of a new single-family home in 2015 was just under $300,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders; and about 78 percent of new homes were priced between $150,000 and $500,000. Less than 6 percent were priced under $150,000, and an even smaller share was priced under $100,000.

Yet, a 2015 Home Buyer Preference Survey conducted by NAHB shows that 31 percent of recent or prospective home shoppers say they expect to pay less than $150,000 for a home. Fifteen percent expect to pay under $100,000.

“The costs of acquiring land, developing it into a lot and constructing a home on it often make it impossible to produce a new home at a price substantially below $150,000,” NAHB notes on its blog, Eye on Housing.

Government regulation on a new home alone accounts for 24.3 percent of the price of the home – or about $84,000 based on the average new-home price.

“Cost factors like these leave little mystery about why the lower 30 percent of the home buying public is often restricted to the market for existing homes,” NAHB notes.

Source: “New House Price Data Shows Why Costs Are a Problem,” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing blog (June 6, 2016)

© Copyright 2016 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

New Testimonials Page

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I recently updated my web site and blog to work better on phones and tablets. That is something Google is pushing and should help with my search ranking. Any way during the process I added a page where buyers can write testimonials. I expected maybe buyers might write a short note saying they were happy with me. To my surprise most people wrote an almost short story about their experience buying a home with me here in Ocala.

http://www.ocalahousehunter.com/real-estate/testimonials/

You can only have 1 homestead deduction in Florida

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This is an article about a recent court decision where a couple wanted to claim homestead deductions on 2 homes in 2 different states one being here in Florida.

Court upholds homestead exemption restrictions

 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 30, 2016 – Venice Endsley and her husband, Robert, had what a court described as an “intact, congenial marriage” for more than 60 years.

In the 1980s, Venice Endsley signed over her rights to a home in Huntington, Ind., to her husband. In turn, Robert Endsley signed over his rights to a home in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea to his wife. Venice Endsley had a homestead exemption on the Florida home, while her husband received a similar exemption on the Indiana home.

But the Broward County property appraiser learned of the arrangement in 2006, leading to a dispute that resulted Wednesday in an appeals court ruling that Venice Endsley was not entitled to receive the Florida homestead exemption. In doing so, the court waded into questions about whether state law only barred multiple homestead exemptions in Florida – or whether the prohibition also addresses properties in other states.

A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal, pointing to a provision in the Florida Constitution, upheld a decision by a Broward County circuit judge, who found that the Endsleys were a “single family unit and could not claim separate homestead exemptions,” according to last Wednesday’s ruling.

Read more

Reasonable Expectations in Home Buying

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I had a buyer recently who thought a home that was built in 2004 needed a new air conditioner even though it was in working condition. My buyer thought that she should deduct from the list price the cost of a new AC along with a laundry list of renovations that she needed to make the house more to her liking in determining her offer. Not only did she want a new AC but the most expensive Trane model made. I thought the home was in pretty pristine condition and it is normal for a home that age to have an original AC unit. I showed her sold comps from the past 3 months to determine fair market value. Homes in that community consistently sold for $5K to $10K off list price. The home we were looking at was priced right. Her offer based on her needed upgrades was $20K off list price. Needless to say the seller thought she was crazy and we were unable to make a deal. I’m telling this story for a couple of reasons. If the list price of a house is correct it already takes into account the age of the home and the community where it is located. You can’t just ignore sold comparables and make up an offer based on nothing other than your personal opinion.

A few things to know about making an offer on an Ocala Home

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I recently read an article on making an offer on a home so I’m making my own version specifically for Ocala Florida. A few of these items are in regard to multiple offers which I have seen a couple of times recently.

1. Sellers do not have to accept the first offer. The seller can also reject or not respond to an offer they think is too low or has too many contingencies.

2. A seller and their listing agent do not have to disclose that they have multiple offers.

3. A seller does not have to accept a full price offer. However if a seller does turn down a full price offer the seller owes the listing broker a full commission seeing that the broker fulfilled their obligation under the listing contract with the seller.

4. Verbal, text and emailed counter offers are not considered a contract until both parties sign the actual contract form. Until both parties sign either can change their minds.

5. A buyer that has a signed fully executed contract cannot just change their mind. If you do you will be in breach of that contract. There is no so called cooling off period in Florida for residential homes.

6. If a buyer makes an offer and the seller accepts that offer you have a fully executed contract. That is why you can only make one offer at a time or you could find yourself in contract for multiple homes.

The above statements are based on my experience as a Florida Realtor and should not be considered legal advice. If you need legal advice call a lawyer.

Why you need a Realtor to help with new home sales

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The new home market is just beginning to pick up here in Ocala. When the market crashed in 2007 prices for resales fell so far below the cost to build new homes most building came to a stop. Only now, 8 years later, are builders having the confidence to start building again.

The reasons to have a Realtor work with you on a new home sale are many.

1) You want to see newer resales as well as new homes. Many newer resales still offer better prices or more upgrades or a premium lot. Many new home buyers want to see resales to be sure that they aren’t over paying for their new home.

2) You realize that the new home sales people are employees of the builder. A Realtor especially one that specializes in buyers has no allegiance to anyone but the buyer and will show you multiple communities telling you the pluses and negatives of each.

3) You want to see comparable sales before making an offer on your new home. Builders sales people won’t help you here. They would also like to pretend that resales in their same community don’t count.

4) You don’t feel comfortable negotiating. A Realtor negotiates for a living. Although builders don’t like to drop the price because it creates a low comp on their new home sales they do negotiate upgrades.

WARNING: builders are notorious for harvesting your contact info. If you call them, email them, request a brochure, you are added to their data base. Forever! That means they will not want to pay a Realtor a commission. Among ourselves, Realtors think who ever writes the offer gets the commission even if you talked to the listing agent previously. Builders operate by a different set of rules.

 

Thunderstorms in Ocala Florida

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I heard in the past that central Florida is the lightning capital of the world. I just read that it is actually in Africa. There is a area that stretches from Tampa to the Space Coast that has more lightning strikes than any where in the US. Although Ocala is a little north of that area we get serious thunderstorms and lightning is a real problem.

My personal experience with lightning was 3 or 4 years ago. A huge blast shook my house so much so that I went outside in the pouring rain to look for a hole in the roof. Seeing nothing I went back inside. A short while later I went to the garage and saw the clock for the irrigation system in the middle of the floor. A bolt of lightning hit the ground in the back yard. It got into the wires that lead from the sprinkler clock to the control valves. The electricity followed the wires inside and blew the clock off the wall. Then it traveled into the house wiring and blew up my desktop computer in my home office on the opposite side of the wall. I learned my lesson and now have every electronic device in my house plugged into a high quality surge protector. I also have a surge protector on the electric meter to protect the major appliances.

 

Not all Ocala 55+ have a true HOA

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Not all Ocala 55+ communities have what buyers from other parts of the country think of as a homeowner’s association, that being when the builder finishes construction that he turns over the facilities and management to the residents.

Here and in many parts of Florida the developer retains ownership of the common areas including the clubhouse, pool, fitness center and golf course and manages the community collecting fees for using the amenities. In this type of community the HOA is for social purposes like clubs and activities. Area communities with this sort or structure include Cherry Wood, Oak Run, Ocala Palms, On Top of the World and the Indigo East and Candler Hills areas.

Communities where the residents do control a homeowners association are Summerglen, Spruce Creek Golf and Country Club, Spruce Creek Preserve, Palm Cay, Spruce Creek North,  and Stone Creek when it gets built out.

I’m not sure one is better than another. Oak Run is one of my favorite communities. You get a lot of bang for your fees at Oak Run and the fees pretty much remain the same.