Florida Real Estate Blog

Buying in a Homeowners Association

You've found the perfect home, and you are excited about the opportunities that it provides. You talk to your real estate agent and find yourself in a homeowners association. What does that mean, you wonder, to your ability to buy the home of your dreams? Homeowners associations are legally recognized entities that have some level of ruling over the associated area. In short, to buy a home here, you need to agree to the terms of that association.

The reasoning behind a homeowners association is to provide some level of control over the surrounding area. That is, you don't have to worry about purchasing a home and then having a neighbor next to you that doesn't take care of his or her property. These associations can take legal steps to force people into…

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What To Look For When You Buy A Home As An Investment

Buying a home as a real estate investment is not the same thing as buying a home to be your home.  You will be looking for different things as an investor than you would be as someone seeking their dream home.  This change of perspective is essential if you want your investment home to turn out to be everything you'd hoped for.

Identify What You Want

First of all, what are you hoping to get out of your investment home?  What type of profit are you looking for?  How soon are you hoping to get it?  These are the types of questions that you need to be asking so that you can target your search for this home appropriately.  You don't want to go in with the vague idea of wanting a real estate investment because then you could end up with the type of…

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What Are the New Mortgage Lending Requirements?

Mortgage rules are changing. Today's home buyer will need to know what these changes are and how they impact their ability to purchase a loan as well as the types of loans currently available. You may initially think that this limits your buying ability, but in the long term, these changes will help ensure that home loans are safer for many people. Nevertheless, if you are buying a home, you need to know more about these new mortgage lending requirements and be ready for what they mean to you.

Self-Employed

One of the biggest challenges that will affect mortgage lending has to do with the self-employed. The new requirements will require more focus on proving earnings to ensure that the borrower actually has the funds available to maintain payments on…

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What Types of Home Loans Should You Consider?

As you consider purchasing a new home, one of the first steps you should take is to consider home loans. Nearly all home buyers purchase using a mortgage. Not only does it make home buying more affordable, but it also ensures that the buyer is able to reduce risk by not putting all of his or her savings into the home purchase. However, there are many types of loans available. Choosing the right one can make a big difference in the long term.

FHA Loans

One of the options available to many people who are considered first time buyers (this is anyone without homeownership in the previous three years) is an FHA loan. This type of home loan offers flexible features, including lower down payment requirements (sometimes as low as three percent instead of the…

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How To Choose The Right Neighborhood When Buying A Home

Choosing the right neighborhood when you are buying a home is almost as important as buying the right home.  The neighborhood can affect your happiness and peace of mind more than you might realize, so take some time to check it out before you make any final decisions.  The right neighborhood can sweeten the deal when you are looking at homes for sale or it can make those homes seem a lot less appealing.

Identify What You Want

You probably know a lot of what you want in a neighborhood, so make a list of everything that you want it to have from its appearance to its location to what you want the neighbors to be like.  You can check out the number of children in the neighborhood and their ages if you want your children to be able to make friends nearby,…

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Mistakes People Make When Looking For A Home

It's scary to think about it, but people make a lot of mistakes when looking for a home.  Some mistakes make the search less pleasant, and others make it difficult to end up with a home that truly makes you happy.  Following are some of those mistakes that people make when looking for a home.  Hopefully, knowing these mistakes will make the process of searching for and finding the right home a little easier. 

Going It Alone

People searching for a home should never go through the process alone.  This refers both to the entire process of home shopping and to its components, like a single trip to check out a potential home.  You should bring your real estate agent along on every trip and along for every other action that you take on the way to home…

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John R. Gordon Joins Realty Executives Orlando - Downtown Office

Realty Executives Broker/Owner Jen Dollar announced this day the partnership with John R. Gordon and his team of real estate professionals to spearhead their downtown Orlando office.

 “No one understands the complexities of the downtown real estate market like John R. Gordon.  John's expertise, experience and skill will be an invaluable asset to our new downtown office as we expand our reach and service throughout Central Florida.”                                        

“A successful real estate transaction is built upon the strength of relationships between the realtor and his clients as well as the trust and experience on getting things done right the first time,” John R. Gordon added.

Realty Executives is one of the largest growing Real Estate…

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Mistakes You Should Never Make When Bidding On A Home

Bidding on a home is a delicate operation.  It is not only the offer that you submit but the way that you submit it that can make all the difference.  The following are mistakes that you should never make while bidding on a home.  Memorize them because they couldn't be more important.

Insulting The Home

Never insult the house for sale or anything about it.  The seller and their real estate agent both already know the details of the house.  You don't need to remind them of any of those details or point out their importance to try to drive the price down.  The seller knows all about the house and chose the asking price accordingly.  If you can work out a deal, that's great.  If you can't, move on.  But don't insult the house.

Not Caring About The…

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Advanced Home Staging Tips To Sell Your Home

When you are ready to get serious about home staging, you need advanced home staging tips.  There are many out there who talk about home staging and make a few minor tweaks, and then there are those who go all out in recreating their home to get it to sell.  If you want to go all out with home staging, then this is what you will have to do.

Clean Absolutely Everything

Cleaning absolutely everything means cleaning absolutely everything.  From one end of the house to the other and from top to bottom, the house needs to be so clean it sparkles.  Clean around, behind, and under every piece of furniture and knickknack that you have, and you will be off to a good start.

Banish Clutter From The Premises

All clutter must be gone.  You want your home so…

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What You Need To Think About When Buying A Home

There are so many things to think about when you are buying a house that you probably feel like you don't need any more, but it is better to be overwhelmed now than to feel regret later.  Cover all your bases while you have the chance, and you will be completely sure that you bought the right home.  This is what you need to think about when buying a home.

Your Lifestyle

Think about your lifestyle.  This will include all the big parts of your life to all those little ones that you take for granted.  Your choice of home could influence where you go when you go out, how often you go out, how relaxing it is to stay at home, if you like your neighbors, and a million other little things. 

It will decide how long it takes to get to work, to school, and to…

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