So Bank of America has announced that they are trying a new program out to go ahead and take homes back from delinquent homeowners, then rent the home back to the homeowner. BOA will charge the homeowner rent (!!!) that is less than their payment and is an amount they can afford. Then they will sell the home to an investor with the former homeowner in place as a tenant. Guess at that point they can be on the chopping block as soon as the lease is up and they lose their home anyway. But who cares, right? BOA can... Continue reading

What are the gas prices doing to your family budget? To your business if you are a small business? I just checked my gas buddy app and it looks like today in the Jacksonville Southside we are around 3.76 per gallon. Having a big family with five kids I have to have a big car. If I fill up just once a week...this is roughly $320 a month...just in gas for one car! The economy has been down for some time now. We talk to people daily that are continuing to struggle. Small businesses, larger families with larger cars and... Continue reading

Ponte Vedra is not a stranger to the whole beach erosion/replenishment issue. Some feel that the beaches should be left alone. The coastline has constantly changed since the beginning of time. Others feel like the state or federal government should continuously pay to rebuild Ponte Vedra and Florida beaches. Tourism... Continue reading

As the government has gotten more and more involved, and MI companies have gotten into the action, we have seen the process get longer and more difficult. We've seen short sales lengthen as you generally have several layers to get through. Even in the "slow" short sales we used to generally expect our approvals within 60 days. Now 90 days would be a blessing on many. We can see absolutely no need for this inefficiency. Since we are five years or so into short sales being on the upswing banks have had ample time to work their kinks out. Processor... Continue reading

Here is a list of the homes sold in Marsh Landing in 2011 taken from the MLS. The sales listed represent all sales by all brokers that are members of the local MLS. Sold Date Sold Price Street Name Beds Full Baths Half Baths Days on Market Jan 21, 2011... Continue reading

Ponte Vedra Beach 2011 Home Sales (32082 Zip Code)- 440 Ponte Vedra Beach Foreclosures Sold in 2011 - 40 Ponte Vedra Beach Short Sales Sold in 2011 - 63 Homes Sold for $1 Million or more - 46 Homes Sold for under $1 Million - 394 Continue reading

We've been doing short sales for almost five years in the Jacksonville real estate market and nothing makes us as upset as fast as lender placed mortgage insurance. This issue makes us angry. Very angry. When we first started doing short sales, MI was never a factor. We got approvals without a huge amount of drama. "The math is simple. Right?" A bank is better off taking a reasonable short sale then foreclosing. It's all math. You never heard "the MI company wants this" or "we are waiting on MI approval." Now it is expected. "I don't have PMI on... Continue reading

Ponte Vedra Beach has a real estate market that is much healthier than the rest of the Jacksonville Metro area. As I was reviewing 2011 Ponte Vedra home sales I found that the percentage of homes that were short sales or foreclosures in this area is roughly half of the... Continue reading

2011 has come to and end and the 2012 Ponte Vedra Beach real estate market has begun! I wanted to bring you some quick facts this morning about Ponte Vedra Beach homes for sale in the Ponte Vedra Beach real estate market as of the beginning of this new year.... Continue reading

As of this morning the following are the Ponte Vedra Beach real estate market statistics taken from the Jacksonville MLS: Ponte Vedra Beach real estate listings ACTIVE: Ponte Vedra Beach homes for sale (active on the MLS, no contingent or pending contract) - 322 Ponte Vedra Beach short sales /... Continue reading

Ponte Vedra Beach houses sold in October 2011. Some of the neighborhoods that had Ponte Vedra Beach home sales in October were Marsh Landing Country Club, Sawgrass Country Club, Sawmill Lakes, The Plantation at Ponte Vedra and Turtle Shores. Subdivision/ Community Street Sold Price Approx Sq Ft Beds Baths Days... Continue reading

Here is a list of the homes sold in Ponte Vedra Beach in the month of November 2011. Subdivision/ Community Name Street Name Sold Price Approx. Heated SqFt Bedrooms Full Baths Avalon Ocean Course Drive $425,000 2,768 3 2.5 Dolphin Cove Sea Bass Lane $221,000 1,732 3 2 Dolphin Cove... Continue reading

The Jacksonville real estate market is a very interesting thing. Sometimes an experience is so completely "out there" that I feel obligated to share my experience. This week we had a buyer ready to put in an offer on a home in a St Johns County neighborhood. The home is absolutely gorgeous. wood floors, beautiful colors, a kitchen begging for the next Paula Deen...it is a fabulous home. The price seemed pretty reasonable. As we always do, we ran comps for the buyers when they were trying to decide what to offer. The home is priced in the mid-$200s. There... Continue reading

Ponte Vedra Beach is a beautiful area in Northeast Florida along the A1A and the Atlantic Ocean. While Ponte Vedra Beach is just south of the metro Jacksonville area and the Jacksonville Beaches it really feels worlds away. For up-to-date information on Ponte Vedra Beach homes for sale and the... Continue reading

Are Jacksonville short sales and Jacksonville foreclosures comparable to straight Jacksonville FL resales? Yes. Say that again? Yes. As we are in the fifth year of the real estate market downturn I would have assumed that this would be common knowledge. Working in Jacksonville short sales and Jacksonville foreclosures like we do, our team is always surprised with this myth is resurrected. It usually happens something like this... "Your listing on 123 Short Sale Lane is only worth 300,000 because regular resales have been going for $350,000 and this is a short sale..." or like this... "Of the 10 homes... Continue reading

We just listed a beautiful Cornerstone built home (fabulous attention to detail!!!) in the Austin Park section of Nocatee in Ponte Vedra. This is the best available price in Austin Park right now and is priced at only $230,000. This home is a 3/2 with an office and a versatile floor plan that makes the home feel much larger and allows for different configurations. This Nocatee home has many fabulous upgrades! The owners had the home customized from the original plans. One of the modifications they did was extending the eat-in kitchen. This created more cabinet and counter space for... Continue reading

Jacksonville FL Real Estate Market Scenario: Buyer with their loan lined up calls us because they want to see a Jacksonville condo listing. Called to make an appointment to show the unit to the buyer. Its tenant occupied so they have to get the tenant to approve showings. Hours and hours later still no confirmed appointment. Meanwhile anxious buy er wants confirmation that they can get in. Likely can't understand why we can't make it happen for them. Is the home for sale or is it not for sale? Are we even trying to get them an appointment? We receive... Continue reading

This is a Jacksonville FL real estate scenario that played out this week on our team: Jacksonville foreclosure property owned by Freddie Mac hit the market last week for $37,900. Our buyer offered $40,000, cash, two weeks to close. Did not ask for anything extra. Completely clean offer. Offer submitted to listing agent Friday to expire on Saturday. There was time to submit the offer before expiration. Agent confirmed receipt but did not submit to Freddie Mac prior to expiration of offer, instead held onto the offer, presumably to help solicit other offers. Late Monday we get a message that... Continue reading

We got this Wells Fargo short sale approval in under seven weeks! It is on a Ponte Vedra Beach condo that had decreased in value to roughly half of it's 2006 purchase price. Terms of the approved Jacksonville short sale: No promissory note Wells Fargo agreed to waive all deficiency rights Initially Wells Fargo was requiring $5,000 seller contribution or a $12,000 0% interest promissory note to be paid back over ten years. We got the number down to a $2,500 cash contribution. All closing costs covered by Wells Fargo. Seller only missed one payment at the time of the... Continue reading

Recent Jacksonville FL Real Estate / Jacksonville Short Sale Scenario: Buyer fell in love with a Jacksonville short sale property he found on the internet. Spoke with the listing agent at length. He said a BPO had been done and he knew exactly what the bank would accept. WHICH WAS THE LIST PRICE. We ran comps and spoke with the buyer who was comfortable proceeding with and offer for the price the bank needed based on the recent sales in the area. The offer amount was for the list price. 4/22 We wrote the offer up, the buyer signed it... Continue reading

Original Purchase of Ponte Vedra Beach Condo in 2006 - $185,000 Seller's Loan Amount (2006 original amount) - $172,000 Sales Price - $100,000 (First offer received $90,000, but we got the purchase price up $10,000 more) PLUS Buyer paid delinquent condo dues! Seller Concessions - $0 Seller Cash Contribution - $2,500 Short Sale Approved by Wells Fargo in only 48 Days!!! Sellers had only missed one payment! Wells Fargo waived the right to pursue a deficiency in writing. If you are a Jacksonville home owner who owes more than your Jacksonville home is worth, you are not alone. Most Jacksonville... Continue reading

Distressed property sales, short sales and bank-owned property, continue to dominate the Jacksonville FL real estate market. The percentage of Jacksonville real estate market transactions that were distressed sales continued to increase from February (up from 62% of sales to 64% of non-builder sales) Other numbers show a worsening real estate market for Jacksonville home owners as well. In February the percentage of straight resales sold (non-distressed, non-builder) was 35% of the market. In March this number dropped to less than a third of the Jacksonville real estate market sales at only 32% of all sales. This is negative news... Continue reading

Jacksonville home buyers are looking for value. Period. The end. If you are thinking about selling your Jacksonville home, can you give them that? This is not 2006. This is 2011. There are many things about your home that you may love, but Jacksonville home buyers can do without. They are no longer willing to overpay. They will go down the street to the one that they don't like quite as much, but has a more favorable price tag. Everything is relative to the competition in your particular niche of the real estate market. Home buyers do NOT CARE how... Continue reading

We offer FREE Jacksonville home buyer services (we help you buy your new home and our help costs you NOTHING!) and tools for Jacksonville home buyers. We provide a lot of information to the general public in hopes that you will call us when you are ready to buy your new Jacksonville home. We are always striving to provide better tools for those looking for houses for sale in Jacksonville FL. This starts with our Jacksonville real estate website. We just made some major improvements to some community pages and wanted to let you know. Large Planned Communities in Jacksonville... Continue reading