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For many people, their dream home includes a big, beautiful green yard that they can view outside their window every day. Imagine how great it would be to look out on a backyard that was 300 yards long - and knowing you never have to mow it! Whenever I am showing new homes for prospective buyers, I always show any golffront home that fits their criteria. Luckily, Central Florida has many golf courses and many golf front homes. There is just something so appealing about having all that space behind your home instead of looking out your back window and into your neighbor's kitchen. 

Of course, there's the inevitable question - will my house get hit by golf balls? Well, depending on what part of the fairway you're fronting (not to mention the skill of the…

I was reading the newspaper the other day and came across a small advertisement that caught my eye. It reminded me of that old saying that buyers and sellers have said to me, and I have told them - "If it sounds too good to be true, then..." well, you know the rest.

The ad said, "Valuable Income Producing Properties!" Then, in small type it said "lender foreclosure". What's wrong with this picture? If this is such a great "income producing property", then why is it in foreclosure? And why are there several other properties in this ad? Just in case somebody reads the fine print on the first one?

A past customer and good friends of mine called me the other day and said that he had found a wonderful deal and wanted to know what I thought. It was for several…

I asked Colleen Mitchell of Countrywide Bank to help shed some light on what the recent Housing Bill would mean for consumers. Colleen has many years of experience in the lending field and I've trusted her services on many occasions.

Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008

The housing rescue bill signed into law two weeks ago presents Bank of America with opportunities to expand its efforts to keep struggling borrowers in their homes and to increase the banks production of various mortgage products.

Key features of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 include a new FHA program to help distressed homeowners obtain more affordable loans, enhancements to traditional FHA loan programs and other provisions to address Americas troubled housing…

A New Home Builder is offering a great deal in the Ocoee area! Special Pricing: $10,000 off a selected 5-bedroom inventory home.  The home features almost 3,000 square feet of space with 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a spacious attached 3 car garage. stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and beautiful cherry cabinets. 

Give me a call if you want to find out more! This home won't last long!

Here are a few statistics for the current Central Florida housing market.

There were 229 homes sold in the Orlando area last week! 

Of these 229 homes, 188 were single family homes, 20 were condos and 21 were townhouses.

Out of the 188 single family homes sold:
7 sold for a price between $0 and $100,000.
101 sold for a price between $100,000 and $250,000.
60 sold for a price between $250,000 and $500,000.
21 sold for a price of $500,000 and up.

Out of the 20 condos sold:
9 sold for a price between $0 and $100,000.
9 sold for a price between $100,000 and $250,000.
1 sold for a price between $250,000 and $500,000.
1 sold for a price of $500,000 and up.

Out of the 21 townhomes sold:
1 sold for a price between $0 and $100,000.
17 sold for a…

A Townhome Community in Winter Springs is offering some fantastic deals that won't last long. The community is located in the heart of Winter Springs, on SR 434. They're offering $10,000 towards the closing costs, a 30 year fixed interest rate of 5.875%, and they'll even pay your electric bill for a year! Check out some of these popular townhome models available:

Belize Model - 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage. 1,690 square feet. Was $212,046. NOW $188,872!

Cape Verde Model - 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage. 1,953 square feet. Was $242,590. NOW $204,647!

Denmark Model - 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 car garage. 2,215 square feet. Was $268,349. NOW $231,195!

These deals will be going fast. If you need any further details, feel free to give me a call at…

 There's actually some good news in the Orlando Real Estate Market! The Orlando Regional Realtor Association (ORRA) has released its June report and sales are up! At a total of 1,443 closed sales, June sales are up by about 100 over May. In fact, this is becoming a trend! Sales have been increasing about 100 a month since March and we are getting closer and closer to the number of properties sold at this time last year.

Inventory is down again, too! At the time of the current report, inventory in the Orlando area is down to 24,575 properties. This is another number that has been steadily dropping since February.

But on the negative side (of course there's a negative side), the interest is up to 6.35% from May's average of 5.94%. Well, two out of three…

At the end of last year, Congress gave us a gift that few people seemed to notice. Without much fanfare, Congress made a major change to the Capital Gains Tax.

According to the previous version of the Capital Gains Tax, when you sell your primary residence you can deduct $250,000 of the capital gains $500,000 for a married couple filing a joint return (providing you have lived in the house for at least two of the last five years). This remains unchanged. Unfortunately, a problem arose when a spouse dies. The old IRS code said that for the surviving spouse to receive the $500,000 exclusion they must sell their home in the same tax year that they filed their joint return. In other words, if a spouse passed away later in the year, the surviving spouse…