Hi folks. Well my morning bike ride took me to unknown territory this morning. While riding around SoliVita, Florida's Premier Active Adult Community, I decided to go off road......  And look what I found. A deer hunting camp!! You just never know what you will find when exploring SoliVita. And here are the deer trap and the deer stand I ran across in SoliVita.                Folks if you enjoy nature and are looking for a Over 55 Active Adult Community in Florida then SoliVita may be just the place for you. 09/14/2013

We buy houses Poinciana for cash. If you have a house for sale that you need to get moved quickly and do not want to go through the process of listing it, dealing with showings, keeping it nice and pretty while people parade through your home, then worry about inspections, appraisals, and mortgage underwriting, PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL AT 407-739-5773 or www.WeBuyHousesFlorida.com . I have been buying property in the Poinciana and Osceola County FL area for nearly 15 years. We pay cash or use creative terms depending on your situation to get you the best deal. No high pressure sales tactics. No 3 or 6 months contracts. No closing costs or commissions either. And I buy them in as-is condition. All price ranges from low end cheap condos to luxury estates. Sell your Poinciana Florida home qui... 08/27/2013

Solivita Retirement Community Real Estate For Sale       Solivita is an over 55 retirement community located in the Kissimmee community of Poinciana. Solivita is a guard gated community located just 21 miles South of Walt Disney World Resort. These Tuscan style homes are surrounded by nature preserves, lakes, and two great golf courses.   This community encompasses 4,300 acres of woods and wetlands. Solivita consists of Town Homes, Villas, and Single Family Homes. Two and three bedroom homes are available up to 3,400 sq.ft. Residents have access to two fitness centers, fishing, golf, arts and crafts, air conditioned indoor jogging track, studio space for dance and aerobics, 12+ lighted tennis courts, and a professional concierge to assist residents with days trips to the theater and oth... 05/28/2013

Poinciana, Florida Homes For Sale      Poinciana, Florida Homes For Sale Is an unincorporated area of Kissimmee, Florida that has over 1,000 home sites and is working on becoming a city of it's own. Currently Poinciana Hospital is under construction with completion due this summer. Poinciana is the city mailing address for those properties that are outside Osceola County, in Polk County. And Kissimmee, Florida in Osceola County.This community is strattling two counties as seen on the map below.      Poinciana, Florida Homes For Sale      View Larger Map   Poinciana, Florida has it's own public golf club. It was named Alhambra Country Club in the past. There are community ball fields and it seems like there is some community event going on every weekend. Poinciana is still growing and ex... 03/26/2013

Being an active adult doesn’t mean sitting around playing Mahjong all day. Things have changed. Today’s active adults are getting fit. In fact did you know that aging is a choice? We can make a choice everyday when we wake up to rot a little more or get up and get busy with taking care of our bodies. Florida’s Premiere Active Adult Comminuty, SoliVita, offers many amenities for today’s active adult. Softball, tennis, pickle ball, horseshoes, golf, aerobics, yoga, Tai Chi, weight lifting, swimming, full cardio and much much more. My wife and I moved into SoliVita in May of 2010. We were both 53 at the time and made a decision to start taking care of our bodies. As most folks in our age bracket we had had way too much fun in our younger years and our bodies were starting to fall apart. M... 02/01/2013

I’m a Baby boomer. I’m one of over 68,000,000 million Baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. I was born in 1957. Baby boomers control over 80% of personal financial assets and more than half of all consumer spending. We buy 77% of all prescription drugs, 61% of over-the-counter drugs, and 80% of all leisure travel. And......according to the 2011 Associated Press and LifeGoesStrong.com surveys: 60% lost value in investments because of the economic crisis 42% are delaying retirement 25% claim they'll never retire (currently still working) As a Baby boomer myself I can relate to each of the above. My wife and I lost just about everything during the financial crisis of 2008. Retirement is a pipe dream. Mostly because I’m self employed and really have no reason to retire. I work from home... 01/28/2013

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas  just had another successful Poinciana Florida Short Sale closing with Chase Mortgage.   The property: Investment Property. 4 bedroom 2 bath single family home located in Kissimmee/Poinciana Florida. This home has 2,849 sq ft of living area and was built in 2005. It was purchased in 2005 for $173,000. It Sold 12/13/2012 for $101,500. That's a decline in value of 42% in 7 years.     Liens:  1st Mortgage with Chase for $206,000     Hardship:  Loss of income.   Summary: Tutas Towne Realty placed the property on the market 30 April 2012 for $100,000. Three days later later we negotiated a deal at $101,500. It took 3 months to get the short sale approval with the seller making a $3,000 cash contribution to the lender's loss. Two weeks later the buyer was ... 01/07/2013

Credit scoring is one of the great mysteries of the universe.  The only ones that know how it fully works are the ones doing the scoring. And they ain't telling! We do know that they take into consideration: Payment history Debt to income Available credit Missing payments will affect payment history and the Short Sale itself will affect debt to income and how the loan is settled. Not missing payments will help but still a Short Sale is a deragatory event for your credit. Short Sales have always affected credit scoring about the same as a foreclosure or deed in lieu. the difference is that it doesn't show up as a foreclosure. It normally gets reported as "settled for less than owed" or something similar. The main incentive for sellers to do a Short Sale is that they can have some control... 11/23/2012

  Good question. My opinion is.......... We sell many vacation homes in the Orlando area. We normally sell the furniture separately. To me the key is that it is being sold as a legitimate purchase and the value is not being inflated just to get money to the seller. Also, was the chattel part of the original collateral for the loan? If so then it's my opinion it should be included with the purchase of the real estate. Does removing it affect the value? For example: light fixtures, blinds and built in appliances become real estate once attached and are included in the appraised value of the property. If removed the value goes down. If these items were included in the original purchase mortgage then they should stay. Furniture, on the other hand, is personal property. It is not included a... 11/04/2012

You just never know what you will find until you close and get access  to the property. Foreclosure auctions are truly "as is where is". Buyer beware to the extreme. One of my UK Investors sent me an email late last week to let me know he had won an online bid on a foreclosure auction. He was so excited. Me not so much. As the good little broker that I am I hopped in mny car and ran over to have a quick look. I couldn't get in but was able to take some pics through the windows. It looked really good. The only downside was that the property was not the model my buyer was expecting. Looks the same from the outside but it's actually 600 sq ft smaller than what he thought he was buying. Well there goes $15,000. His $79,000 purchase went from being worth $115,000 to $100,000. But that's ok. ... 09/15/2012

  Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas  just had another successful Kissimmee Florida Short Sale closing with Flagstar Bank. This was an FHA Pre Foreclosure Sale.  The property:   Primary Residence. 3 bedroom 2 bath single family pool home located in Kissimmee Florida. This home has 1,416 sq ft of living area and was built in 1990. It was purchased as a foreclosure in July  2005 for $113,500. It Sold 8/31/2012 for $78,000. That's a decline in value of 31% in 7 years. I have personally sold this home 3 times over the last 12 years. 1. Bought as a Foreclosure in 2000 for $88,150 2. Sold in 2006 for $224,000 3. Sold in 2012 for $78,000  Liens:  1st Mortgage with Flagstar Bank for $109,000   Hardship:  Divorce. Relocation.  Summary:  Tutas Towne Realty placed the property on the market 7 Jun... 09/10/2012

  Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas  just had another successful Poinciana Florida Short Sale closing with Freedom Mortgage. this was a FHA Pre Foreclsoure Sale.  The property:   Primary Residence. 4 bedroom 2 bath single family home located in Poinciana Florida. This home has 2,094 sq ft of living area and was built in 2006. It was purchased as a foreclosure in September  2008 for $120,000. It Sold 8/29/2012 for $78,000. That's a decline in value of 35% in 4 years.    Liens:   1st Mortgage, FHA, with Freedom Mortgage for $116,000   Hardship:  Loss of employment. Relocation.  Summary: Tutas Towne Realty placed the property on the market 24 February 2012 for $89,000. We slowly reduced and inegotiated a deal at $78,000 on 18 May.  This was a FHA Pre Foreclosure Sale. FHA agreed to pay t... 09/10/2012

Hi folks. This article will give you an idea of some of the difficulties we encounter on the way to a successful Florida Short Sale closing. I placed this Wells Fargo Short Sale property on the market on 23 January 2012 priced at $59,000. We sold it for $60,000 on the 26th. If this were a regular equity transaction I would be looking forward to closing and getting paid in about 30 days. I would have made $1,950 for a fair amount of work. BUT noooooo.......it’s a Short Sale. So getting the property listed and finding a buyer is the easy part. Then the fun begins. It took exactly 6 months to get to “closing”. During that time I spent countless hours gathering and submitting documents to Wells Fargo, sending out weekly updates to the Seller and the Buyer and negotiating a cash contribution... 07/26/2012

OK so this one is a real blast from the past. first written in July 2006. Pretty much right when the market turned. It was also when I took the above picture.  Has the bubble burst? Or is it just slowly deflating?   My market area is Poinciana one of the fastest growing PUDs in the country located in Kissimmee, Fl. As of this morning there were 1434 homes on the market in our two zip codes ranging from $135,000 to $650,000. Twelve months ago there were approximately 250 homes on the market. Where have all the Buyers gone? Have they floated away? Or are they just letting out a deep breath after a hectic buying frenzy? Based on what I am seeing they are still here but spending more time weeding through all the overpriced properties trying to locate the Sellers that need to sale. Poincian... 06/24/2012

Good morning folks. One of our Short Sale Superstars members asked this great question: "If you are buying a short sale and are contributing to the 2nd lender, on behalf of the Seller, does the contribution amount have to be included in the Good Faith Estimate? My broker just completed and submitted my GFE and I realize it doesn't include contributions." Thoughts? 04/20/2012

Watch List your house cheap in Comedy| I had a closing last week. 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 v... 01/08/2012

  Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Kissimmee/Poinciana Florida Short Sale closing with Fifth Third Bank. The property: Investment property. 4 bedroom 2 bath townhouse located in Kissimmee Poinciana Florida. This home has 2,234 sq ft of living area. It was purchased new in May of 2005 for $234,000. It Sold 12/28/2011 for $72,200. That's a decline in value of 70% in 6.5 years!  Liens: 1st Mortgage with Fifth Third Bank for $230,000 Hardship: Loss of rental income. Reduction in value. Summary: I placed the property on the market 29 April for $75,000. Negotiated a cash deal at $72,200 on 19 May. It took until 18 December to get the approval from Fifth Third. Most of this time was negotiating promissory notes that were required form Fifth Third and the Mortgag... 12/30/2011

Hi folks. Today I want to talk a little bit about keeping the listing. Lack of good communication skills and/or systems is the number 1 reason why Sellers complain about their agents. In fact, just about every time I go meet with a Seller who has just had their listing expire "lack of communication" is what they complain about. "They listed my property and I never heard from them again." "I always had to call them if I wanted an update." "It would take them days to return my phone call." "They never answer their phone and their voice mail is full" and on and on and on. Hopefully this post will help you with some systems. If you want to be a "lister" then you need to master these two things. Price it right. Keep the listing until it sells. This is done by constant communications with yo... 11/25/2011

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Kissimmee Florida Short Sale closing with Bank of America. The property: 3 bedroom 2 bath single family home located in the Poinciana subdivision of Kissimmee Florida. This home has 1,407 sq ft of living area, an in ground swimming and was built in 1989. It was purchased in October of 1997 for $64,900. I actually sold it to them in 1997. Liens: 1st Mortgage with Bank of America for $144,000 Hardship: Curtailment of income. Divorce. Issues: This was a pretty straight forward Kissimmee Florida Short Sale. Tutas Towne Realty placed it on the market May 12 at $69,000. We received multiple offers and placed it under contract on May 16 at $75,190. It was sold by one of my agents. The transaction closed on October 31. 172 days fr... 11/01/2011

Tutas Towne Realty and Bryant Tutas just had another successful Kissimmee Florida Short Sale closing with Bank of America. The property: 4 bedroom 2.5 bath single family home located in the Poinciana subdivision of Kissimmee Florida. This home has 2,113 sq ft of living area and was built in 2005. It was purchased new in September of 2005 for $158,000 then bought by my seller 8 months later for $230,000!! It was a primary residence. Liens: 1st Mortgage with Bank of America for $184,000 2nd Mortgage with Bank of America for $23,000 Hardship: Curtailment of income. Issues: This was a pretty straight forward Kissimmee Florida Short Sale. Tutas Towne Realty placed it on the market June 15 at $85,000. We placed it under contract on June 30 at $85,000. The transaction closed on October 4. 111... 10/13/2011