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Beyond the sunshine and warm weather, the tax benefits of a Florida residency can be substantial. Everyone probably knows that Florida does not have state income taxes, but it is generaly less known that Florida estate taxes are more favorable than many other states. My e-mail inbox today contained an e-mail that really troubled me, here it is with the senders name redacted: Subject The latest report on the Lee County rental market released by RealFacts of Novato, CA detailed some significant shifts in our rental market for 4Q09. One of the buyer misconceptions about our current Fort Myers area real estate market is that banks will approve ultra-aggressive, low-ball offers on short sales and foreclosures. Approving low-ball offers in Lee County has absolutely not been the operating model for lending institutions during 2009. Time Magazine covers the re-emergence of flippers to the Florida real estate market. We have certainly seen this in the Fort Myers area, particularly in the entry-level single-family home foreclosure market. Peter Goodman, the author of Past Due, which prominently featured the boom and subsequent bust of the Cape Coral real estate market weighs in with an update in today’s NY Times. This article is a must read for anyone with a vested interest in Cape Coral real estate. Here is a video of a Las Vegas homeowner calling into Your Money on Fox News. The caller poses the question of whether he should strategically default on his underwater home. The panelist present arguments for both sides of this debate: Where do you stand on this debate? The first wave of foreclosures to impact Lee County were dominated by investor-owned single-family homes in Lehigh Acres and Cape Coral. Many of these were the speculative products constructed by the likes of First Homes and sold to under-qualified and inexperienced investors. These investors were the first to fall and many just walked away from [...] The trail of false promises, scammed investors and deceit just never seems to end when it comes to Russ Whitney. His latest venture, Millionaire University is the subject of a class action suit filed by a group of scammed students. Basically, Millionaire University ran late night infomercials designed to lure naive real estate [...] Bye Bye First Homes An ugly era in the annuls of Southwest Florida real estate history came to an end yesterday when Hovnanian sold the last 1,409 lots it owns in Southwest Florida. Hovnanian sold these remaining lots to a Czech investment group for about $3,000 each, a far cry from the peak value about [...] The Globes reports on Israeli nationals targeting bargains in the US Housing market. With many priced out of the real estate market in the at home, the option to purchase in the US is very attractive: Levy and other people with whom “Globes” has talked mention double-digit returns on investment. A comparison with the Israeli real [...] The Miami Herald reports that foreign nationals are buying up distressed Florida real estate with the hopes of securing US citizenship via an investor visa. An investor visa requires a significant investment in US property. Locally, a Mexican national was granted an investor visa after investing $1M in a Bonita Springs restaurant. We welcome foreign national [...] The Chinese drywall problems plaguing SW Florida were highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Anyone looking at purchasing a SW Florida homes built in the 2002-2006 timeframe should absolutely have a housing inspection performed by a building inspector with experience with Chinese drywall detection. One of the key draws to Cape Coral Florida is the 400 miles of canals, most of which are lined with residential housing. Cape Coral, more than any other city in Southwest Florida, offers significant opportunities for affordable waterfront living. At the present time, Cape Coral is one of the national leaders in term [...] Steve Sjudderud’s Daily Wealth has an interesting article about investing in quality properties at a fair price rather than less desirable property at a low price. This article hit home with me as we have been swamped over the past several months with investor inquiries for some of the lowest priced, lowest quality properties [...] For those of you considering dipping your toe in the Florida real estate market, Jim Cramer believes that we are at the bottom. The supporting logic behind this proclamation is that builders stopped new construction in Florida two years ago and inventory is being absorbed by our continued low interest rates. Cramer suggests [...] One of the questions for those currently considering a Cape Coral real estate investment is how much will I be charged for utility assessments. At this time, both areas Southwest 6/7 and North 1-8 above Pine Island Road are being targeted for utilities. In the Southwest 6/7 area water, wastewater and irrigation are proposed, in the [...] Now that we are a few years removed from a major hurricane, the News-Press reports that insurance carriers are taking a renewed interest insuring homes in Southwest Florida. These reductions [...] Time Magazine covers the topic of property tax expectations for those who have recently purchased foreclosed property in Florida. In Florida, taxable valuation is based upon average values of homes in a given neighborhood, and not based on individual transaction values. What this means is that although you may have found a screaming [...] The Lee County Court System created a “Rocket Docket” to expeditiously work through the 30,000 pending foreclosure cases. To date, the court has worked through approximately 6,000 cases and the backlog of foreclosures is now under 24,000 cases. If you are looking for a deal on a Southwest Florida foreclosure home, here are resources that [...] Buyers are jumping into the Cape Coral market finding foreclosure deals at highly discounted prices. In June, 644 homes were sold in Cape Coral, up dramatically from previous June sales numbers. Currently comprising over 60% of the sales, Cape Coral foreclosure homes are moving at a brisk pace. Here is an NBC2 video clip highlighting [...] Our Lot: How Real Estate Came To Own Us, a new book by Alyssa Katz, prominently features the Lee County real estate bubble. The Lee County chapter focuses on the flipping that occurred in Lehigh Acres during the height of the market run-up. Anyone who participated in the Lehigh flipping frenzy will certainly want [...] I was just reading a hot debate on Trulia about home price escalation in Cape Coral during 2009. Several individuals tossed out estimates about their view on the percentage that prices have gone up this year in Cape Coral. The fact of the matter is that median home prices in Cape Coral have not materially changed [...] Real Estate investing guru author Steve Bergsman has a new book out titled “After the Fall, Opportunities and Strategies for Real Estate Investing in the Coming Decade.” Bergsman takes a look at the current environment for investing across the various sectors in today’s post-fall environment. Our current market action in Southwest Florida is being heavily influenced [...] There has recently been a great deal of euphoria regarding the real estate market here in Southwest Florida. A recent News-Press article titled Southwest Florida sees light at the end of housing tunnel cites recent home sales figures to suggest the worst is behind us. While I agree that the clearing out of inventory [...] The foreclosure feeding frenzy for Cape Coral distressed homes continues as reported by the News-Press. Many Cape Coral REO listings are coming on the market with aggressive asking prices. This is proving to be a sound strategy for the institutional owners as we are seeing multiple above asking price offers on these listings. Right [...] According to Preliminary reports by the Lee County Property Appraiser, property values in Lee County have on average dropped by 25% over the last year. The key driver is that over 80% of our arms length transactions have been distressed sales. Here is a new scam regarding Chinese drywall. Someone is posting fake notices that an inspection has found Chinese drywall inside of several Cape Coral homes in foreclosure. Most of the homes are due to be auctioned and the theory is that someone is trying to scare off other bidders to get a [...] If there is a silver lining in the SW Florida real estate bust, it is that I no longer get stacks of low-ball mail solicitations for vacant lots that I own in Cape Coral. Today, a different sort of Cape Coral vacant lot solicitation was sitting in my mailbox. It was an offer from the [...] |
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