by Jamey on February 19, 2010
Gaging performance metrics in the Miami Beach real estate market is a must for Seller’s Agents. A seller’s agent in Miami Beach needs to “know the numbers”.
Buyers are smart and savvy; they have information and market data at their finger tips. They are NOT going to over pay for a property. Also overpriced properties are really bad for the market because they just sit and sit and throw off the market data. Thus making the market more stagnant. It doesn’t do the seller, the agent or the market justice to list a property for more than it’s worth.
It’s really hard some times to tell a seller how much their home is worth in this market. Quite frankly, it sucks!
But the reality is we have more than enough information to arrive at a decent price point to list a property. Some of the factors that you should ask your agent is:
- What are the average Days on Market for a similar condo in my building? From there branch out to competing units in other similar buildings.
- What are the average Days on Market for a similar home in area?
- What is the average List to Sales Price difference for similar properties in my market?
- What is the average final Sales to List price ratio
- How do Short Sales and Foreclosures affect my property?
These are some typical sound questions to start with and from there your agent can delve into more specifics for your property. It’s really important to know that the market changes every six months or so , the data from last year may or may not be relevent. This analysis is truly in the details. In the end the buyers determine the final price.
by Jamey on February 16, 2010
Miami Beach Real Estate Terms 101, (hint, hint….. they don’t know what you are talking about).
I was reading a blog article earlier this morning and the author was saying that often when you do something for a living, those outside of that sphere who don’t do it daily, probably have no idea what you are talking about.
It’s an interesting read, you can read the full post here.
It got me thinking a little about the terms that I may use with my customers and clients on a daily basis. I figured I should go through a few of the most common terms I use on a daily basis and explain them.
- Listings: A term we use to describe the properties we as agents list for sale or rent. For example, “Are there any two bedroom listings for sale in Mosaic Condos?”
- Pocket Listing: A term used to describe a listing that is not active on the MLS but an agent knows that the owner would sell it if they had the right buyer.
- Escrow: the literal translation is “an account established by a broker for the purpose of holding funds until termination of a transaction via wikipedia“ In plain English: when you give a check for a deposit, I will give it to a broker or an attorney who puts it into an account to hold until the sale is completed and/or the 1st day of the rental. This account is often used for reference during the transaction to send out letters stating that the funds have cleared and there is a deposit of $xyz amount and it is valid.
- Fannie Mae Approved: This could be a big long explanation but basically Fannie Mae buys loans from approved mortgage sellers. In order for Fannie Mae to buy the loans back, they have to be based on certain criteria. So when a building is listed as “Fannie Mae Approved”, this means that the building meets the criteria of Fannie Mae thus you can more easily get a loan on a unit in this building. **Everything still has to be reviewed and finally approved but it’s a good indicator that you can look to buy in this particular building if you need a loan that is back by Fannie.
- Listing/Seller’s Agent/ Owner’s Agent: This is the real estate agent who represents the owner/seller of the property.
- MLS: The multiple listing service. This is a computer database where we enter our properties for sale and for rent. From here this information gets syndicated to sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Googlebase and more.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a38d10c6-71f4-4567-b7b9-5397dd587e89)
by Jamey on January 11, 2010
DISCLAIMER: This information is presented to provide an overview of Fannie Mae’s condo guideline changes. For specific information and questions, please consult with your mortgage loan officer. I am not a mortgage loan officer.
On Friday I posted a link to breaking news on my Miami City Diggs fanpage on Facebook that Fannie Mae announced that they were going to ease condo mortgage restrictions.
The article published by Florida Association of Realtors noted that:
Fannie Mae announced yesterday that it would comprehensively review hundreds of condominium projects in Florida. Through a new “Special Approval” designation, Fannie hopes to streamline mortgage approvals for projects that don’t currently fit Fannie Mae guidelines even though they present limited risk to the company.
published on FAR click here to see the full article
In this market, this is good news to start off the new year… why?
When we start working with new buyers the most challenging part of the pre-buying process is explaining to our buyers that if they are purchasing a property and need financing; unfortunately not all of the properties listed for sale, will be properties that they will be eligible to buy. I just looked up in the MLS the most recent closing data of condos sold in Miami Beach for 2009. There were 1560 properties sold and 1095 of those were purchased with cash. Now that doesn’t mean that all of these were units/buildings didn’t qualify for financing, however it is a telling sign of this market.
Breaking it down…
Let’s assume that you want to buy a Miami Beach condo and you come to me with a pre-approval letter from your lender. However, just because you are pre-approved doesn’t mean that the building that you want to purchase a unit in is approved for lending.
Due to the hardships that our market has faced over the last few years, Fannie Mae has gotten very strict on their lending restrictions and they have have created a set of guidelines that lenders must go by in order to approve a unit in a building before backing a loan. This means that if the building doesn’t meet these criteria, most often the loan will not be approved.
According to Fannie Mae, the guidelines can be modified for condo projects on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, these guidelines may not apply to all condo projects. These are some examples of what may be considered:
- No more than 15% of a condo project units can be more than 30 days delinquent on HOA dues. This is an existing guideline that is now being applied to new condo projects. The calculation was also changed from being 15% of HOA fee payments to 15% of total units.
- Fidelity insurance will be required for condos with 20 or more units, ensuring that homeowner association funds are protected. Presently, this requirement applies to new projects and is now being extended to include established condos.
- A requirement that borrowers must now obtain a condo-owners insurance policy unless the master policy provides interior unit coverage; coverage may not be less than 20% of the assessed value. A condo-owners policy, known as an HO-6 policy, covers personal property, personal liability, and the physical unit from the studs and in. Many policies also include special assessment coverage or the option to include a special assessment coverage rider.
- No more than 10% of a project can be owned by a single entity.
- No more than 20% of a project can consist of non-residential space.
- The homeowners association must have at least 10% of its budgeted income designated for replacement reserves and adequate funds budgeted for the insurance deductible.
So what does this mean now?
Note the above criteria and add in the announcement last week from Fannie Mae that they “would comprehensively review hundreds of condominium projects in Florida. Through a new “Special Approval” designation, Fannie hopes to streamline mortgage approvals for projects that don’t currently fit Fannie Mae guidelines even though they present limited risk to the company.” quoted from FAR article
If you want to see all of the FAQ pertaining to this new announcement click here.
This means that many previous buildings that were not eligible for certain financing based on previous restrictions, will now have a new opportunity for review. Thus a better chance for non-cash buyers to purchase in some of these buildings and in general more buildings that will may be eligible for financing.
from Fannie Mae’s site: Special Approval Designation for Established Florida Condominium Projects from 01/04/09
I have only listed buildings from the areas that we work.
To see the full list click here.
Miami Beach:
360 Condominium A & B
Harbour House
Mirador 1000 & 1200
Roney Palace
The Grandview Palace
The Michelle Condominium
Miami:
Blue
Charter Club
Cite
Latitude on the River
The Club at Brickell Bay Plaza
The Grand
The Yorker
This is really good news for non-cash buyers and hopefully it will open up more buying opportunities for them. Now more than ever buyers need to be sure they are working with professionals (lenders and Realtors) who know this market inside and out.
Thanks to Marc Halpern at Halpern & Associates for providing me with these details. Marc Halpern is associated with the Keller Williams Miami Beach office, he knows our market and he comes highly recommended.
Marc Halpern
Halpern & Associates Mortgage Corporation
1680 Michigan Ave #1001
Miami Beach, FL 33139
O) 305-535-2230
F) 305-535-2231
C) 305-992-4325
DISCLAIMER: This information is presented to provide an overview of Fannie Mae’s condo guideline changes. For specific information and questions, please consult with your mortgage loan officer. I am not a mortgage loan officer, I am a Realtor that works with buyers and sellers in a challenging market. My goal is to provide my clients with the most up to date information. This is information that is more suited for your lender to assist you and the extra details they are best suited to answer those questions.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f249e3da-9e04-41a0-b102-0759a1e21c29)
