BrandonSternfield's Blog: Real Estate

Well, I’m sure that title got your attention. And it’s not like it’s too far from the truth : people that shouldn’t have got loans did. Underhanded methods were used, and now we all pay for it.

Luckily, the only way the investment market was hit, is now the loans are just a bit harder to get. There is even MORE incentives offered then before. But….

Our booming real estate economy finally popped. We all knew it was coming. The sellers market is gone. Now we are faced with millions of foreclosures nationally, some pending, some not even started yet. All of them looming over the peoples head’s though. People feel betrayed, by simple interest only adjustable mortgages. The intention was to get a 2 year interest only adjustable, and then refiance the…

My family was slated to move up to South Carolina sometime the fall of this year. We were already fixing up our modest 3/2 home in South Florida, and packing things up.

We got a very nice appraisal, but we finally realized something.

With the current declining market, we'd have to sell the house way under the appraised price. In order to pay for both the buyer commission and the seller commission we'd have to lose money. Yes, you read that right. Due to the declining market, we'd have to sell so far below appraised value, that after closing and commissions, we would lose money. Give or take 5 thousand dollars.

So since our house gained so much money, and my father works in the mortgage business refi'd recently to get more money out to fix the… Read Full Post

I just read an interesting article about a voting that took place yesterday. Here's my overview of the  article. If you would like the read the article in it's entirety (lots of quoting politicians =/) check the links.

Yesterday the Florida House voted to roll property taxes back to levels more around 2001. They also voted a 2nd plan to rewrite Florida's tax code, giving voters options when it comes to property taxes and sales tax. Democrats said they supported the rollback since it sends the message that they support tax cuts, but warned that they wanted to revise the plan to make it less harsh on local government.

Marco Rubio, the House Speaker, advocated the second plan. Around two thirds of the representatives voted to pass, including two… Read Full Post