How to find and buy a house in the Ocala Marion county Florida area including 55+ retirement homes, golf course homes, short sales and foreclosures.

Due Diligence in Ocala Real Estate

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The buyer has a responsibility to do their own research and due diligence when buying a home. A real estate agent in Florida is assumed to be acting as a transaction broker with the following limited responsibilities.

1. Deal honestly and fairly.

2. Account for all funds.

3. Use skill, care and diligence in the transaction.

4. Disclose all known facts that materially effect the property even if not readily observable to the buyer.

5. Present all offers and counter offers in a timely manner.

6. Limited confidentiality. An agent can’t reveal that a seller will take a lower price, a buyer will pay a higher price or other info detrimental to the oposing party. The buyer or seller are not responsible  for the actions of their agent unlike a single agency.

This is a brief over view of the duties and the full disclosure is available in PDF format if you want a copy.

When you work with an agent you are really working with their broker. Acting as a transaction broker allow the agent to show other listings from their brokers office.

The point of all this is that it is up to the buyers to determine if the home and the area is suitable for them.

Here are a few resources.

Read the local newspaper, the Star Banner, it’s online and free. Read it every day to get a feel for the area, schools, politics or what ever interests you.

Don’t ask a Realtor questions about an areas demographics. That’s the third rail of real estate. If you’re interested in demographics do an internet search. You can search on anything even by zip codes.

Law enforcement agencies have pretty nice web sites. The 2 important ones are the Marion County Sheriff and the city of Ocala police department. Remember although our area is often referred to as Ocala a lot of the area is actually in Marion County and may be in a subdivision that is not in any city or town.

Ocala is a great place to retire or to live if you’re self employed but finding a job can be tough. I think the best resource for Ocala employment opportunities is Employ Florida.

Google Maps is a nice way to get a feel for Marion County. I’ve created a map of Ocala 55+ retirement communities and plan to build others. If you’re not real familiar with Google Maps or the competition, you can often click on areal view and zoom in on a feature or area. Keep in mind that these images may not be up to date.

Property taxes are very confusing. The tax amount that you see on a listing is probably not what you will end up paying. Taxes are reassessed every time a house is sold. The Marion County Property Appraiser has a nice web site. Check out the FAQ and the tax estimator. I have also added a new page to my web site about Ocala area Property Taxes.

Read my blog. I try to do 1 or 2 posts a week. I also blog about the weather and market conditions monthly.

What to look for in an Ocala area home.

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I work with a lot of first time buyers and out of state buyers and as we look at homes I try and point out things that make one house better than others. Here are some things that I think make for a quality home here in Ocala.

CBS or concrete block and stucco construction. Everything else is considered inferior do to the termites. CBS homes can get termites because there is wood framing in the walls and roof but CBS is considered the best material and commands a higher price than frame house. Read more

Looking at homes online vs real life

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Real estate online has revolutionized the industry. It has empowered the consumer. Real estate agents used to be able to just show buyers listings of their own or those of their broker but all that has changed. Buyers can look at hundreds of houses from the comfort of their own homes and develop a real feel for value. This is a good thing.

I constantly send listings to buyers through my Ocala Dream Home Finder which sets buyers up with a predetermined search of their choosing and automatically emails them listings.

The problem is that there is just no substitute for seeing a house in person. You need to get a feel for the space, imagine yourself living there, check out the neighborhood. The size of a house can also be very deceiving. Online all you can do is look at the square feet of living area. I’ve been in houses with great floor plans that felt 25% larger than they really were and just the opposite with poor floor plans. Buyers see a great priced foreclosure but don’t realize that it’s in the middle of no where. Realtors don’t know what to expect from a listing either until they see it. I’ve been in foreclosures that were obviously never lived in and I’ve been in others that were so nasty I wanted to go home and take a shower. I once went to show a really nice looking house. We pulled into the driveway and saw the neighbor with cars parked on his lawn. There he was working on his Harley in the driveway.  A guy who looked like a member of the band ZZ Top.

The moral of my story is the internet is a great thing for real estate. The internet has brought transparency to buying process. However it is just one tool. A starting point and no substitute for a good real estate agent. That would be me of course.

Ocala Real Estate Market Report Aug 09

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Sales in August at 283 homes were up from July’s 269 homes. June was the best month so far this year at 319. Total listings remain around 5,500 homes.

Sales are way up in 2009 over 07 & 08 but that is because home prices are way down. Most of current sales are driven by bargain hunters snapping up foreclosures and short sales. The 55+ communities will always attract buyers because people retire regardless of the economy but prices are coming down in these communities as well.

Home prices in Marion County will not rebound to 2006 levels because they should never have gotten that high in the first place. Marion County does not have an economy to support $200,000- plus housing and never did. That is what out of the area builders and investors never understood and local builders ignored. Now that construction has almost stopped our unemployment rate is 12.5%.

I don’t mean to get down on our area but it is important for sellers to get a true picture of our economy so they can make informed decisions. Homes are selling every day but price is the way to move a house. The MLS is on the internet and buyers know a good deal from an over priced house and no amount of advertising can change that.

Buyers now is the time to buy. Interest rates are at historical lows and given the deficit spending our government is doing, inflation and higher rates are almost certain.

Ocala Property Taxes

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Property taxes in Ocala, as in the rest of Florida, are pretty confusing. A lot has to do with the Save Our Homes initiative, also know in real estate as amendment 10. Save Our Homes was supposed to keep seniors from getting taxed out of their homes by capping tax increases on homestead properties by 3% or the rate of inflation, which ever is lower.

The problem with amendment 1o is that you can buy the exact same house as the guy across the street, who has been there for 10 years, and pay twice the taxes that he does. Another example of politicians helping one group at the expense of another.

Now that property values have dropped like a stone here in Florida a new issue has come up with Save Our Homes.  This is called the recapture rule. The recapture rule states that tax assessors must increase the assessed value of a house by up to 3% as long as that it  is less than the homes market value.  This is why most peoples taxes are not going down even though their homes value has gone down.

Now here’s some home work. Below are 2 great links. One is to the Marion County property appraiser. Read the FAQ and check out the tax estimator. If you live in Florida read the portability calculator because you can bring your Save Our Home exemption with you to a new house. The other link is to an article from the Ocala Star Banner which has a detailed explanation about why taxes aren’t going down.

Marion County Property Appraiser

Ocala Star Banner

If you buy a foreclosure or short sale in the Ocala area it is important to understand that you will be assessed at market value and not the amount you paid for your house.

Finally, when you see the taxes on a real estate listing be aware that it is not the amount that you will be paying. Taxes adjust every time a house is sold.

Florida population down, Marion County up

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While Florida lost population for the first time since the end of WW2, Ocala Marion County gained in population. From April 08 to April 09 Marion County added a little over 3,800 residents. Over all Florida lost over 58,000 people. Some counties losing more than others and a few counties actually gaining population like Marion County.

Why are people coming to Ocala and Marion County?

  • The lowest median home prices in Florida.
  • Lower property taxes than much of the state.
  • Lower home owners insurance than much of Florida.
  • Much lower hurricane risk than south Florida.
  • Less traffic and crime than other parts of the state.
  • Just a better quality of life.

There has never been a better time to buy a house in Ocala Marion County than now. Interest rates are at historical lows with no where to go buy up. Home prices are down 50% in some areas from 2005-07. Call or email me today and I’ll send you a list of homes that would meet your needs. All I need to know is what you want. Or try my Ocala Dream Home Finder. What ever is easier for you.

Ocala Deed Restrictions

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house with over grown grass and junk car in the yard

Ocala deed restrictions

I get asked a lot about Ocala area deed restrictions. Let me start by saying that no one dislikes authority figures or being told what to do more than me. However, as you can see from the picture above there are good reasons for deed restrictions. Try selling your house if you live next door to that guy.

If there is a mandatory HOA, home owners association, you must be given a copy of the deed restrictions to read before making an offer. Most are pretty much common sense like no mobile homes or that you can’t park your RV or boat on the front lawn. Others might bother some people.  For example, you can only put up a certain kind of fence or you can’t have a shed in your back yard.

If you can’t imagine living with deed restrictions you do have options in the Ocala area. There are a number of sub divisions with either no or very few deed restrictions. There are older communities that have let them expire. There is also agricultural zoning but if the house is in a sub division the zoning can be over ridden by the deed restrictions.

So to sum this all up, deed restrictions depend partly on the personality of the buyer, the restrictions themselves and how they are enforced.

The $8,000- tax credit expires the end of the year

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Do you qualify for the Ocala first time buyers tax credit? If you haven’t owned a house in the past 3 years you probably do qualify. This is free money. You don’t have to pay it back. You don’t need to owe $8,000- in taxes.

You do need to start looking for a house soon. The tax credit expires the end of this year. In order to close by the end of 09 you will need to be under contract by mid November at the very latest.

Not all offers get accepted. Deals fall apart for a lot of reasons. Don’t wait for the last minute. Start shopping early for the best deal.

 

Is this the bottom or just the calm before another storm

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Home sales here in Ocala have really picked up in 2009. That’s because prices have dropped so much. The median home price here in Marion County went down 16% in 2008 and much more in some sub divisions. The other factor in affordable homes besides just price is interest rates. Interest rates are the subject of this post.Seeing our elected leaders have proposed record deficit spending, are higher interest rates inevitable? The government finances it’s spending not by printing money but by selling bonds. The higher our deficit the more we have to sell and the only way to increase the sales of bonds is to increase the interest rates that they pay.

Can the increase in interest rates wipe out the gains in affordable housing created by lower home prices?

A $100,000.00 mortgage at the current rate of 5.5% would be $568.00 a month.

If rates shoot up to 7.5% the monthly payment would be $700.00 a month.

A $125,000.00 mortgage at 5.5% is only $710.00 a month.

I hope you can see how just 2% interest can wipe out such a big chunk of buying power. Interest rates are at historical low and there is no where to go but up. I think we are at a sweet spot in the market that just can’t last forever, low rates and low prices. This is the time to buy and I mean right now.

Chinese drywall in Ocala Florida?

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A very hot subject in Florida real estate is Chinese drywall. Chinese drywall is actually a German company Knauf, who manufactured drywall in a plant in China. Apparently the housing boom of 2003-2008 combined with the destruction of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma caused a shortage of drywall. To make up for this shortage drywall was imported. There are materials present in the Chinese drywall that are not used in the manufacture of American drywall. These compounds cause copper pipes and wires to corrode.

I never new anything about Chinese drywall until a few weeks ago and now it’s all over the news.

Is there Chinese drywall in Ocala Florida? According to a map on the Florida Department of Health web site there have been cases reported in Ocala. As of the writing of this post there have only been a few cases. Most of the problem seems to be in south Florida.

How do you know if your house has Chinese drywall? This link is to a self assessment guide from the Florida Department of Health.