Ocala 55 plus retirement communities in and around the Ocala Marion county Florida area with images, prices, amenities and HOA fees.

Punxsutawney Phil 2022

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I always found it fascinating and fun to see my favorite little ground hog on the television.  The whole affair of predicting the weather without radar, Doppler and satellites is amusing.  Seeing Punxsutawney’s handlers all dressed up with their suits and top hats has always brought a smile to my face.  I mean, who wants another 6 weeks of winter, right?  All that cold, windy, snowy stuff to deal with is not fun.  Well, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning so there is 6 more weeks of winter for folks in other parts of the country.  The good news (and don’t ruin it for the little ones) is he is only 40% accurate.  I heard he took the first flight to Florida he could today to get out of the cold!

We don’t really worry about 6 more weeks of winter in Central Florida.  We had a freeze for a couple of nights last week and they tell us one of those nights was the coldest in 4 years. It was pretty cold!  However, as it always happens in Florida it warms back up again.  Tomorrow we are going to experience 80 degrees and sunshine!  I have a lunch date with a colleague tomorrow.  I am going to head over in my golf cart because I can.  Talk to you soon!

 

It’s time for me to retire

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I started selling real estate here in Ocala in 2006. I immediately developed my website OcalaHouseHunter.com and went live in January 2007. In 2009 I started this blog OcalaRealEstateTalk.com. It’s now time for me to retire. I’ve been slowing down for the past 2 years and giving buyers to another agent from our office, Valerie Ostrom. She did a very good job and all the buyers I sent her seem happy. I am now selling Valerie my website and blog and she will continue to help people with homes here in Ocala. Like me Valerie specializes in 55+ homes. Valerie lives in On Top of the World and is an expert on Ocala retirement communities.

 

Buying a house in Ocala in 2021

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It’s getting harder and harder to buy a house in Ocala. I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months now and the following are random thoughts.

Unless you live in Ocala or within reasonable driving distance you’re screwed. No one will hold a house while you jump on a plane and come down here. You can’t even trust that a home that looks active doesn’t already have an offer.

I don’t see the market changing anytime soon. This is pure supply and demand. There is also a catch 22 thing where people are afraid to sell even at high prices because they don’t know where to go next.

If you are out of state and absolutely want to move there are a couple of things you can do.

  1. You could make an offer on a house sight unseen. Yes people actually do that but it’s highly dependent on your personality.
  2. You could sell your existing home. Store you furniture or sell everything but very important and personal items. You could then try and find some sort of rental which is very difficult or stay on a hotel for a month or two. I have heard there are rentals in The Villages in the summer off season. Some people have relatives to stay with or a few lucky ones might have an RV.

I did an informal survey of the community I live in, Stone Creek. A few homes are selling below list price but most are selling at or above list price. There were a lot of cash sales but sellers are still taking offers where the buyer is getting financing. I can’t tell if sellers are taking a contingency on the sale of an existing home or not.

Buying in a sellers market

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A few random thoughts about options and potential problem when making an offer in a sellers market.

Cash. Cash offers without a doubt gives the buyer an advantage. In Ocala though cash offers are not that unusual. We see them often. Cash with no contingency other than an inspection can’t be beat.

Contingencies. Contingencies are a disadvantage. An offer with a contingency on the sale of an existing home is the worst. Even before the current sellers market list agents and sellers were nervous about the sale of a buyers home. Finance contingency will lose out to cash every time. A loan with a local lender is usually look on as better than a big national bank.

Inspections. I put this in it’s own category instead of as a contingency. I have heard of buyers in super competitive situations skipping an inspection and I think that is just crazy. Maybe and just maybe if a house was a year or 2 old but even then I think an inspection should be done.

AS IS. An AS IS contract means that you do an inspection but the seller makes no repairs. The buyer can take it or walk away. Some list agents don’t like AS IS because unlike the traditional contract that locks the buyer in unless the repair limit is exceeded, in an AS IS the buyer can walk away during the inspection period. If a seller is open to AS IS it can be an advantage for the buyer.

Sight Unseen. By that I mean making an offer based on what you see online without actually visiting the house. I’m not a fan and don’t think I would buy a house like this but some people do. I have sold 6 or 7 sight unseen homes. I do a walk through looking for things that you can’t see on MLS images. I have also done short video walk throughs to get a feel for the property. I only do walk throughs and videos for buyers who are drop dead serious about making an offer on a specific home.

Renting. There are few to none short term rentals here in Ocala other than an Air B&B. Ocala 55+ communities have various restrictions against renting short term. Renting long term is hard to find and during the lease term home prices will go up and you’ll be spending $1500 to $2000 a month during the lease. I’ve been told there are short term rentals down in the Villages but that’s all I know. I don’t do rentals at all.

A sellers market here in Ocala

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The real estate market here in Ocala has changed dramatically since the fall. For example in the 55+ community I live in, Del Webb Stone Creek, last October there were at least 40 listings and today there are just 7.

I had a couple of buyers over the last couple of weeks. The first buyers had their house in another state under contract. They found 3 homes to see. When I went to make appointments 2 had contract but weren’t put as Pending into the MLS yet. They did like the one we saw and made an offer that was accepted. The 2nd buyer from South Florida found 4 homes. Once again when I went to make appointments 2 had just got under contract. A third stated in the Realtor remarks that they had multiple offers. My buyer decided to postpone her trip.

Inventory is limited. The lower your price range the harder it’s getting to find listings and when you go they go fast.

 

Sellers Market vs Buyers Market

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My real estate career has come full circle. I got my license in 2006 during a crazy real estate boom. In 2008 the bubble burst. I survived the next few years selling cheap homes for low commissions. Finally things picked up and prices went up and things were good. Now here in Ocala we are in a serious sellers market. By that I mean low inventory and homes selling in a few days in some cases.

I wrote this in May of 2009 and it holds true today. Sell high and buy high or Sell low and buy low

Is now the time to buy a house in Ocala FL ?

Think of it this way.

In a sellers market you sell high and generally in a short time. BUT then what do you do? Unless you’re headed to the nursing home or planning a backpacking trip to Tibet you’ll probably have to buy another house. You go out into a sellers market with few choices and pay top dollar for your next house.

Now in a buyers market you may sell lower than you’d like and maybe a lot lower. But you can go out into a buyers market full of inventory and pay an equally low price. That’s why I think a buyers market is actually better than a sellers market………….

The real estate crash in 2008 was not at all the same as today. In 08 a lot of people were buying homes with no down payment and poor credit. In Ocala people were actually speculating by putting money down on a new house and planning to flip it in 6 months after it was completed. There is none of that now.

Today is more supply and demand. A lot of people are leaving northern states and even South Florida because Ocala still has reasonable home prices when compared to other areas. Actually compared to my home town in Massachusetts prices in Ocala are cheap.

 

New Del Webb homes are cheaper in Ocala

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As you may know I built a new home in 2019 in Del Webb Stone Creek here in Ocala. I always liked to sell homes here but since moving I’ve had a lot more buyer business in my community.

The other day I was showing new homes to a buyer with my sales contact Allen. We were talking and he said how much more expensive the same model was in other Del Webb communities in Florida.

That got me to thinking and I did a simple search. Del Webb Mystique model. Here in Stone Creek the base model and that’s the price they always show was $264,990-. Sure enough I didn’t see another Del Webb and I looked at like 6 communities with a Mystique base under $300K.

That’s why buyers come to Ocala. Inexpensive homes. A lower chance of hurricanes. A quiet and peaceful lifestyle.

And yet another bank screws up a sale

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This is a follow up to my previous blog post Not all banks are the same.

My buyers selected at large national bank where they already had an account. We wrote a contract with a 45 day close. In Florida we pick a closing date at the time of the offer and that is the date we are supposed to close unless the sellers and buyers agree in writing to change that date. The loan officer assured my buyers right up to a couple of days before closing they would close on time. It’s important to know that the loan officer usually has little authority over the closer and underwriters. The people in the back room who in the case of big banks are in different cities started asking for more documents. For the 3rd time they asked the buyers for proof of funds they needed for closing in addition to their loan. Those funds were in a different bank. The buyers gave them proof but it took a week for it to go through the bureaucracy. We were now past the closing date. The sellers were furious. Did the bank do anything to expedite things ? No the buyers had an existing home they owned and gave that address to mail the home insurance bill to for their new Ocala house. The underwriters made them change that address with their insurance company. You might think something like that could be done in hours but no it takes days for the bank to respond. Then the bank wanted to see the insurance policy on their other home, a home they had no mortgage on. You might think it is none of the banks business what you do with another home you own but at this point the buyers were at their mercy. The point of this post is that big banks have no mercy. No compassion. They don’t think a state real estate contract terms apply to them. The buyers eventually closed almost 2 weeks after the agreed on date. Both the buyers and sellers were under a lot of stress. The sellers had moved out before the original closing date and needed their money.

Think long and hard before you pick a lender. Interest rates and fees are not the only thing to consider. A local lender is almost always a better choice than a national lender. You can go with any lender you want but ask them if they have a guarantee to close on time, not a promise.

Ocala #6 in Best Places to Retire

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Ocala sign for historic downtown square

US News and World Reports published a list of the Best Places to retire in 2020-21 and Ocala came in at # 6 out of 150 major metropolitan areas. You will notice out of the top 20 Ocala has the highest housing affordability score.

Link to article    https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-retire?sort=overall&high_to_low=true

Stone Creek picture blog

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This is a series of pictures that I took walking around here in Del Webb Stone Creek. I like to take pictures as I roam around and these are just taken with my Samsung cell phone. I’m thinking I may do a series of picture posts about Stone Creek. Stay tuned for more.

Early AM rocket launch from Cape Canaveral taken from my front lawn

Early AM rocket launch from Cape Canaveral taken from my front lawn

orange sunrise taken from my back yard

Sunrise taken from my back yard

Sunset orange horizon with big purple clouds

Sunset taken from my back yard

looking down golf course colors enhanced by cell phone

Golf course picture magically stylized by my phone

looking at pool from beach entry palm trees colors enhanced

Stone Creek pool stylized picture