All Categories

I am now absolutely convinced that the major issue with Tampa Foreclosures, Short Sales and the like are the Banks. This just happened to me this morning which caused a domino effect of other events that I will not go into in this Rant. I have a listing that is a Villa in a really nice development. The owners are nice people and through no fault of their own, they needed to sell the property. This is not the property that they live in. Villas in this development are very tough to sell and we ... Read Full Post

This is probably something that has never been done before, or at least not done that often, but I wanted to write a blog about my buddies blog, fellow agent where I work that just got going in Blogging and writes about Autism. He doesn't blog about about real estate although he has links on the side of his blog page regarding real estate, but he wants to educate others on Autism and be aware of a project that is underway in Riverview Florida that he is a big part of. His name is Steve Bristo... Read Full Post

Kind of a strange title but I think that you get the idea as to what this is about. I am blogging about blogging. What a concept. In either event, I decided to write about why we write, or blog I should say. Many individuals blog because they have something to say, some just want to rant and rave about some topic, while others do it for reasons of being social or because they are attempting to embrace the whole Social Networking concept. Whatever the reason is that someone blogs is not really... Read Full Post

I remember speaking with my father that was a broker in MA back in the day and he use to get those huge books from the MLS board with all the listings in it, that were outdated the second they got the book. He use to love that book...I don't know why as it seemed like a huge waste of paper to me but what do I know, right...wrong. I come from a unique line of Realtors that actually have some knowledge of technology. Having a degree or 2 in Engineering, a few patents to my name I think would qu... Read Full Post

We are all aware of the market as we know it today. Foreclosures, especially Tampa Foreclosures, are running amuck, with no current end in site! The investor frenzie of a couple of years ago has left its mark everywhere. Investors have these vacant homes now on the market for rent and for sale. Taking whatever they can, some of them lucky enough to find a renter to put in their property to cut down on the out of pocket expenses. Herein lies the problem... The rent they are receiving is not co... Read Full Post

There has been a lot of hype lately about Foreclosures, Bank Owned Property, and Short Sales, although Short Sales seems to be a term just used in the South East of the Country. Anyway, I think buyers are confused about the types of deals available. Most buyers, and even some agents, that we have come into contact with, think that they can negotiate the closing dates and every other stipulation of the contract. What needs to be understood is that the Bank or Lender is the final say in this tr... Read Full Post

Ok, I have a problem that I have to get off my back. Here is the story. There is an agent in my office who is new to real estate, lets call her Sally. Sally has a mentor, lets call him Steve. Steve, for his troubles, gets 14% of Sally's first 4 transactions. Steve's whole purpose in life as a mentor, is to help Sally setup her business and learn how to do real estate. Ok, so far so good. Here is where the problems start and finish. Sally asks Steve to help her with her website. Steve is now b... Read Full Post

Thats a good question, a question that I have been asked quite a bit lately and to be frank with you, I ask myself the same question. The state of Florida never seems to do anything easy and there is a calculation that can be done to figure it out. You will need first go the the county assessors office to determining what your current taxes are - Hillsborough County Assessors Office. Ok, now make sure you make special note of your "Just Market" and "Assessed Value". Now go to this page (Tax P... Read Full Post