My friend Mark Puente at the Tampa Bay Times recently published an article entitled “New Waterfront Condos Disappearing from Market in Tampa Bay“. At the Smith & Associates Real Estate office on Beach Drive in Downtown St. Petersburg, on a daily basis I have customers walk in who inquire about the condo buildings nearby, […]
Beat out the Competition: Buying a Foreclosure Home in Tampa Bay
While bank-owned foreclosure homes (also called REO’s – stands for Real Estate Owned) are plentiful in many markets, in some they are harder to come by. Take for example Pinellas County, where foreclosures account for just over 4% of the total market and thus they aren’t always easy for a buyer to get. Foreclosures sometimes […]
Tampa Bay Real Estate Market: Recovery in Sight? One Realtor’s Thoughts…
Lately the news in the media has been drops in unemployment rates, the U.S. economy is in recovery. Maybe it doesn’t feel like it to some, but its what we are seeing in the real estate business. The numbers don’t lie. After talking to some of my realtor friends, they agree. We are all light […]
Pinellas County Statistics and Real Estate Trends for October 2011
I get a lot of clients that tell me “I only want short sale and foreclosure listings sent to me” because they assume those are the best deals in the marketplace. Did you know that over 76% of the 8,253 homes on the market today in Pinellas County are non-distressed properties? Hint: This is not […]
Top 5 Consumer Websites for Real Estate Research
Often we have many buyers we are working with who send us links to properties they’ve found on sites like Trulia and Zillow. No offense to these sites, they are great for some things, but doing current real estate research is not one of them. The sad truth is Trulia and Zillow infrequently update listings, […]
5 Signs Real Estate Recovery is Here
David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, is bullish on home ownership. Stevens — a former Long & Foster Cos. executive who stepped down as head the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in March — thinks there’s sunshine on the horizon and it may be here sooner than anyone realizes. Recently Inman News […]
