If you have kids who are seniors in a Florida high school this year, they may qualify to participate an essay contest that's offering a total of $106,000 in scholarship funding. The deadline for the contest is fast approaching.  It is set for Friday, March 7, 2008.  Participating students must write a typed, double-spaced essay, 500 words or less, on the topic, "How Does a Realtor® Professional Benefit the Community?" Sponsored by the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR), the scholarship program can benefit students all over Florida.  Prize money will be going to first-, second- and third-place essays in each of FAR's 13 Florida districts. Students turning in the top district essay will each win a $5,000 scholarship prize; second-place winners will receive a $1,500 scholarship award; a... 02/11/2008

Hi folks. As I was reading my daily "Early Bird News" put out by our Florida Association of REALTORS® I was enlightened by the real reason for our housing downturn. This may come as a shock to some of you......are you ready?Speculators may have accelerated housing downturn!Speculators! Who would of thunk it. Well I sure did. My market, Poinciana Fl, was raped by speculators. It seems like every "investor" from NY and South Florida swooped down on Poinciana to purchase every new construction home they could with the intent to flip for a profit. The appeal was new houses that could be bought in the mid to high 100s that would have cost them $300,000 to $400,000, or more, in the areas they were from. It seemed like an easy game plan. Purchase for $175,000 in Poinciana and then by the time ... 02/06/2008

Poinciana (PHN) | In January of 2008 there were 69,548 people who called Poinciana home and 18,683 homes.  The least expensive of these sells today for $60 per square foot, a drop of $1 from December 2007.  The least expensive single family home in Poinciana is listed with an asking price of $93,900.Absorption rate, the rate at which properties are sold, for Osceola County stood at 2.8% in December, a drop of 0.2% from November 2007.  A similar decline of 0.2% also occurred in Poinciana to rate of 2.6% in December.  Although inventory dipped to just below 1,000 in December 2007, it rose again during the following month and stood at 1,059 on January 31.While for most of 2007, homes sold at about one per day, since January 1st the daily average dropped to one about one sale every two days... 02/02/2008

  Recently, I re-listed one of my listings that had expired about six weeks ago. At the time it expired the hubby decided they need a new REALTOR® so did not re-list with me. I HATE it when that happens!!!I had the property on the market for 5 months and had quite a bit of activity but being on the high side of the market, for Poinciana, we never received any offers. Got real close but nothing materialized.Anyway, the Sellers came down before Christmas and decided to try another REALTOR® that was a friend of a friend of a friend. We all know how that goes.I'm very close with my Sellers and talk with them all the time. Mrs. Seller did not want to switch but Mr. Seller just felt he needed to try something new. No biggie. It happens in a down market. Folks get anxious. I completely underst... 01/28/2008

I had a closing today. I love it when that happens. TLW can now go shopping and I can sit out by the pool, work on my tan and bask in the sweet feeling of victory while smoking a $10 cigar and sipping a Remy Martin!! OK maybe I'll pass on the cigar and the Remy. I wonder if TLW will pass on the shopping? I doubt it.About 6 weeks ago I had a very nice lady from England contact me from my ActiveRain blogging efforts. Her property, a vacation rental, had been on the market for almost a year with another REALTOR® with no action and she really wanted to get it sold. Anyway, like the good little Broker that I am, I told her I would do a quick analysis on her property and call her back shortly.My analysis showed that she was about 20% above market value and that the property was currently lis... 01/25/2008

POINCIANA (PHN) | In part I of this article, a response was provided for the question, "Why government should help homeowners?" and laid the foundation for why the subprime fiasco is the responsibility of government, all government.  Following are just a few more reasons why government must help homeowners.Many homeowners, especially Hispanics and non-English-speaking borrowers were given mortgage brokers' nod-nod, wink-wink at signing understanding that "interest rates would never go that high."  Many homeowners are now plagued with even more predators ever before, such as realtors offering to "Save Them" from foreclosure.  In 2007, homeowners typically held net worth's averaging over $180,000 - versus $4,000 for the typical renter.Mortgage underwriters have little to no incentive to s... 01/20/2008

Hi folks. Since I'm always writing about Real Estate in Poinciana Fl I thought I best tell you a little a bit about Poinciana today. Did you know Poinciana Fl is right smack dab in the center of Florida? It's also the second fastest growing PUD(planned unit development) in the Country. Poinciana is 90 minutes to the East coast (Melbourne-Space Coast) and 90 minutes to the West coast (Clearwater-Tamp Bay).If you haven't heard of Poinciana before maybe it's because it's not a town or a city. In fact it's actually a part of Kissimmee. Kissimmee is just a little south of Orlando and about 15 minutes to Disney World. Poinciana has a population of approximately 67,000 people and encompasses two counties. The north side is in Osceola county and the south side is in Polk county.Poinciana was pl... 01/17/2008

This is the third part of my series on short sales. As way of disclosure, I am NOT an expert on short sales, I am using this series as a way for me to think through the process and hopefully become better prepared to help some Sellers who may qualify for a short sale. A short sale can be a very complicated transaction. Not only are we negotiating with the Lender but there is another entity who may be involved as well....the Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Company. Most Buyers, that did not put at least 20% down when they purchased their property, were required to purchase PMI for the benefit of the Lender. PMI protects the Lender for loses usually up to 20% of the loan amount. So, they have a say so in whether or not a short sale is accepted. I am in the process of negotiating a short ... 01/15/2008

I've been spending a lot of time this week thinking about short sales. My market, Poinciana FL, is going to have a bunch of them this next year so I figure it's time to brush up on my short sale skills to see what I can do to help some folks out. The first thing I have decided is that I'm going to be very picky with who I work with. My last post touched on that a little. The percentage of getting short sales closed is very, very low. I hear 25% to 30%, if you're lucky. My goal is to up that number substantially. If I can't close better than 1 in 4, well.....I have better things to do with my time. My target is to close 3 in 4. So, with that in mind, I will be doing a series of posts sharing my thought process as I try to figure this out. Your suggestions are welcomed. Here is a rough ou... 01/13/2008

POINCIANA (PHN) | Ivan Maldonado, pastor of Bible Prophesy Revealed -- a Poinciana-based "home church" -- initiated a concept to save Poinciana from what he perceives to be crumbling community. Some local residents and area leaders disagree, citing crime rates in Poinciana far lower than anywhere in the city of Orlando.  They question Maldonado's motivations. In a community were every "village" houses between one and a half-dozen brick-and-mortar churches, Maldonado said that his plan is to unite both church and people under a concept he calls "Poinciana Vision." Maldonado already has garnered support from a number of area nonprofits.Maldonado uses his home address as the registered location for Bible Prophesy Revealed, a church primarily run with video services on the Internet. The chu... 01/13/2008

In a recent survey of top builders in the U.S., Poinciana can boast that six of them build regularly in Poinciana.  Such giants included: Lennar/U.S. Home, KB Home, Centex, Ryland Group, Maronda, and Avatar.The Poinciana CraneTM local blog.La Caballera de PoincianaTM blog en español.Poinciana At HomeTM Realtor.® 01/12/2008

Long before the housing crisis hit Poinciana, Countrywide led the community - not in home loans, but - as its number one entity foreclosing on area homes.  Today, after months of bankruptcy rumors, Countrywide was bought by Bank of America.  Coincidentally, Countrywide also recently donated $25,000 to LULAC, the agency leading the way to saving homeowners from foreclosure. 01/11/2008

POINCIANA (PHN) | Our Year-Start Report starts with a chart of interest to Poinciana homeowners only.  This chart shows sales of existing single family homes in Poinciana, not including such areas as Solivita, Crescent Lakes, etc.  For detailed criteria used to develop the most accurate information in Poinciana contact Home@PoincianaHome.net.  Notes on Chart . . . 1. September 2004 fluctuation: Hurricanes hit through Central Florida for the first time in almost five decades bearing a direct inland blow on Poinciana. 2.   June 2004 and April 2005 showed sales equal at 107 homes sold.  Highest number of homes sold in one month was in June 2005 with a total of 129.  The lowest number of homes sold was recently in November 2007 with a low of only 23 homes sold in a one-month period.©Jan.200... 01/09/2008

 Folks, as you know, normally when I write about the market in Poinciana FL, I am always telling you guys how sales are down 60%, values are down 30% and basically how my market is in dire straights. Well today, I want to look at Poinciana from a different perspective.Instead of looking at Poinciana through the eyes of a Real Estate Broker, I want to take a minute to look at Poinciana from the perspective of someone looking to move to Central FL.Here are some stats that will help put Poinciana in a better perspective.In January of 2006 there were 57,730 people that called Poinciana home. In November of 2007 there were 69,548. That's an increase of roughly 12,000 or a tad over a 20% INCREASE in population in a 2 year period.In January of 2006 there were 15,503 single family dwellings in ... 01/09/2008

Somewhere down the line I didn't think I needed to be told that the day before New Year's is the worst day of the year to ask someone, especially a homeless someone, if they'd like to kill themselves.  So imagine being struck when someone points out that a big-wig wrapped up their last Friday of the year with a Forum depicting a man - with sheers - smiling and trimming a tree in front of his "Subprime-ensnared" home.  Yep, smiling and trimming; subprimed and smiling.  In their Forum, the editors of Florida's Orlando Sentinel (OS) asked, "Should government help homeowners caught in the subprime tangle?"  And I thought, now shouldn't that dude in the cartoon be frowning or did the OS fail the brain-paper connection when it chose its OP ART that day? So I figured, maybe they had a lot of h... 01/09/2008

POINCIANA (PHN) | Ivan Maldonado, pastor of Bible Prophesy Revealed -- a Poinciana-based "home church" -- initiated a concept to save Poinciana from what he perceives to be crumbling community. Some local residents and area leaders disagree, citing crime rates in Poinciana far lower than anywhere in the city of Orlando, and they question Maldonado's motivations. In a community were every "village" houses between one and a half-dozen brick-and-mortar churches, Maldonado said that his plan is to unite both church and people under a concept he calls "Poinciana Vision." Maldonado already has garnered support from a number of area nonprofits.Maldonado uses his home address as the registered location for Bible Prophesy Revealed, a church primarily run with video services on the Internet. The ... 01/07/2008

  MARKET REPORTPOINCIANA NEIGHBORHOODSSINGLE FAMILY HOMES2007(INFO COMPILED FROM THE MID-FLORIDA REGIONAL MLSSEARCH CRITERIA: ACTIVE 34758,34759 SUBDIVISION POIN)2007MONTHNUMBEROF CLOSINGSAVERAGESALES PRICEMEDIANSALES PRICEDAYS ONMARKETJANUARY39$221,968$225,000121FEBRUARY41$205,024$202,900124MARCH45$194,469$196,000112APRIL38$204,795$200,450127MAY46$194,461$189,500145JUNE32$194,969$199,000112JULY34$179,599$172,951151AUGUST32$185,800$179,250174SEPTEMBER26$197,099$188,159133OCTOBER30$185,392$187,548151NOVEMBER24$177,608$182,45095DECEMBER38$162,680$150,750147JAN-DECMARKETTRENDAVERAGE35 MONTHMARKETTRENDDECLININGDOWN 27%MARKET TRENDRAPIDLY DECLININGDOWN 33%MARKET TRENDRAPIDLY DECLININGAVERAGE132MARKET TRENDINCREASING Comments from Bryant TutasBroker/OwnerTutas Towne Realty, IncOK folks, I bro... 01/06/2008

POINCIANA | Lately, I've been getting this one, almost prodding, question about home sales in Poinciana.  It's been, "Have we hit rock bottom yet?"  While clicking my heels, like Dorothy in Oz, I've been giving everyone the same answer, "We're getting closer, to be sure, but not today."  This week, however, I found myself done with this Black-07 response.  With 2008 around the corner and March just three months away, it appears we've finally hit the trend creating the foundation of our bottom, an "absorption rate" that's calmly remained below 5% . . . all year.  Since April 2005, when our market began its current downward trend, I've been saying that the market needed to reach a "low plateau," a.k.a., rock bottom, before we'd see it rise again, and 2007 . . . all of it in fact . . . was... 12/30/2007

Well here we are just a few days away from 2008 and all I can say is "Thank God I made it through 2007!" This has certainly been one of my more challenging years as far as Real Estate goes. But you know.....it wasn't too bad.Granted my sales volume was down about 30% from 2006 and my income was also down but.....I'm still here and I'm looking forward to next year.I was fortunate to have made some good real estate investments during 2004 and 2005 so I'm now able to sell off a few properties to supplement my income. Also, as most of you know, I'm now Brokering my family's Disney Vacation Club Resale business, Garden Views Realty, Inc.TLW and I just moved into our new home. So I now get to work out by the pool all day. Hey someone has to do it!!2008 is also going to be very challenging but... 12/26/2007

A rumor moving around the blog-sphere is scaring some area sellers into believing that that banks are not lending money for home purchases in Poinciana, Florida, a surprising rumor given that a home was in fact just sold in Poinciana just last week on 12/21 by, of all entities, a bank.  Folks, this is a scare tactic.  The fact is that, if this were happening, it would be an illegal practice called redlining.  Granted, only 400 homes have sold in all of 2007, money is still out there and banks are lending.  Agents encouraging this rumor are likely to be agents wanting to list your property for sale who may very well not be working with buyers.  If you run into an agent who tells you "mortgage money has dried up" for Poinciana, I would question this person as to which banks, exactly, are ... 12/25/2007