Leave These Home DIY Projects to the Experts

by Elsa Soto | Jun 8, 2022 | Blog, Homeowners, Homes, Villas and Condos, Investment Property in Florida, News, Real Estate News

Leave These Home DIY Projects to the Experts

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Considering a home improvement project so you can get top dollar when selling your home? Some projects are easy to do yourself, but for safety purposes, leave these jobs to the professionals:

Plumbing/gas [which could lead to leaks and flooding]

Not only does a professional plumber have years of experience, but they are certified, trained, and friendly. The old stereotype surrounding plumbers is that they are rude, overbearing men or women, who storm into your home and make a big mess before overcharging you.

With a DIY approach, you’re left flying by the seat of your pants or relying on a YouTube 4-minute clip to give you careful instructions about the intricate plumbing systems of your home. Next time you reach for your own tools, remember this: A DIY approach is not always easier or cheaper than calling a plumber.

Wall demolition [pipes and wiring may be behind the wall or it could be load bearing]

Involving a structural engineer is a good first step. However, it does make the process take longer and potentially become more complicated than a regular renovation.

Whenever you remove a load-bearing wall, you have to add a beam to support the weight, especially if your house has two stories.

A structural engineer will help your contractor come up with a plan, which will keep your home safe when that prominent wall comes down.

Some local governments require the approval of a structural engineer when any wall comes down, regardless of whether it’s load-bearing or not.

Electricity [which can cause electrocution or electrical fires]

It’s important to have an experienced professional inspect your electrical system regularly to ensure that it is safe and up to code. This means that if there are any problems with your electrical system, they will be caught and fixed before they turn into a bigger issue. Rest assured that when you leave electrical work to the professionals, they will take care of everything for you.

Roofing and decking [injuries from falls]

As homeowners, we think we know best, but there are things we can’t see with the untrained eye, that professionals can. Roofing contractors such as Hero Restoration use drones to fly high above the house to get a good look at the peaks and roof decking. Naturally roofing contractors spot out damage that can’t be seen from the ground. Inside the house, there could be a small leak that has settled into the attic. Experienced contractors know exactly where to search to find those leaks. This comes from years of roof repair and installations. Trapped moisture creates a disasters waiting to happen. Debris build-up in gutters must be removed quickly before moisture is allowed to back up in the shingles, or flashing, or roof valley.

Landscaping [improper draining/flooding]

Expert landscapers can identify problems and make suggested maintenance changes to your system that will save you money on your water bill. In addition, a leak-free irrigation system won’t overwater your vegetation, which can also save you from having to replace dead sod or plants.

Source: Adam Long, president of HomeTeam Inspections

Ready to make a Move?

Bardell Real Estate are the experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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A Balanced Market? Early Signs of a Return

by Elsa Soto | Jun 7, 2022 | Blog, Homeowners, Homes, Villas and Condos, Investment Property in Florida, News, Real Estate News

A Balanced Market? Early Signs of a Return

Real estate historically swings from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market, and early 2022 signs suggest it’s moving toward a balance between the two.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Potential homebuyers in South Florida have been waiting with bated breath for signs that more inventory might hit the market and ease the fierce competition.

Lack of inventory during the pandemic fueled high home prices as the region saw an influx of buyers from other parts of the country. That momentum, in turn, created a fear of missing out, resulting in an even greater shortage.

Experts now say that there are indications that more inventory could be coming to the market, and that buyers may be pumping the brakes.

For South Florida, new listings have seen a slight improvement, said George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com. “We are still seeing new listings down compared to a year ago, but that decline has moderated,” he said.

In January of 2022, new listings were down by 18% compared to the year before. In February, new listings were down by 10%; March was 12% and April was 9%.

“The trend here shows that we expect to see more homeowners bring homes to the market as the pandemic comes down,” he added. “We are moving back to the single-digit decline and it seems to be moving in tandem with the national level. Towards the late summer [and] fall we might see increased inventory in South Florida.”

Agents seeing slight increase

Real estate agents are seeing a slight uptick in inventory coming to the market in South Florida, though it is not enough to meet demand or create balance in the market.

“It’s still very much a seller’s market,” said Jeff Grant, a Realtor with REMax in Palm Beach Gardens. “The inventory gains have been modest. I would guess that there are 10-20% more homes for sale than there were 3 months ago.”

Other agents also report seeing small increases of inventory coming to the market when compared to the year before. According to real estate agent David Gunther with Lang Realty in Delray Beach, there were about 7-8 single-family homes available for sale this time last year priced in the $700,000s in central Delray Beach. Now, there are about 22 properties listed.

“Properties are still being absorbed quickly, but the confidence is lower,” Gunther said. “The interest rates are probably bringing sellers to the table.”

Interest rates pushing sellers, quelling buyers

Inventory is still imbalanced with not enough properties out there to meet buyer demand. But real estate agents say that they have seen more sellers motivated, in part, by rising interest rates. Interest rates have climbed to about 5.6%, rising rapidly over the past six months. Some sellers are putting their homes on the market sooner rather than later, believing that the higher rates will make buyers less interested.

“Buyer demand is less than normal this year as compared to last year, which isn’t surprising given that interest rates have been raised several times already this year and prices have increased so drastically,” said Brian Peal with the Pearl Antonacci Group in Boca Raton.

Realtors say that the sellers most active right now are those with more flexibility in their lives, who don’t need to immediately find a new home in the area.

“Most people that I’ve worked with that are listing their homes have been retirees and investors that are starting to sell off their investment properties, second homes, or leaving the area for a less expensive market,” said Grant.

Though buyer demand has slightly tapered off recently, the buyers that remain in the market are still competitive, experts said.

“There may be fewer of them, and it’s not as much of a frenzy, but it’s still a super seller’s market,” Gunther said.

He recently had an open house for a townhome for sale priced around $1 million and about six buyers came to the viewing. A year ago, he said there probably would have been a rush of 25-30 people showing up.

“I expect the market will still be a seller’s market but inventory will normalize. It should take a little pressure off of buyers,” Grant said.

Ready to make a Move?

Bardell Real Estate are the experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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5 steps you shouldn’t skip

by Elsa Soto | Jun 1, 2022 | Blog, Homeowners, Homes, Villas and Condos, Investment Property in Florida, News, Real Estate News

5 steps you shouldn’t skip

5 Steps BUYERS Don’t Want to Skip — Even in a Hot Market

Florida is one of the hottest housing markets in the U.S., making buying a home challenging. Here are five tips for finding the best real estate deals in Florida and having a smooth closing:

1. View properties in person to make sure you see any aspects of a home not included online. Touring listings with an experienced real estate agent, who can spot potential concerns, is always wise. If you must rely on a virtual showing, you can have an agent visit the property and make a purchase offer contingent upon a satisfactory professional home inspection.

2. Be cautious when buying a home remotely, so you don’t fall prey to any scams, such as fake listings or overpriced properties.

3. Use trusted financial institutions for making necessary payments, such as a good-faith deposit to a brokerage with a purchase offer. Online payment apps, such as PayPal and Venmo, don’t offer the same protections as a traditional bank with FDIC insurance.

4. Make sure your finances are in order before spending too much time searching for your dream home. Getting a mortgage preapproval is best so you know how much you can borrow and at what terms. It may also carry weight with a potential seller evaluating multiple purchase offers. Also, make sure your credit is healthy so you qualify for a mortgage with the lowest interest rate possible, which can save thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.

5. Use an experienced real estate agent who understands the market where you want to buy a home. They can help you navigate the potentially complex process of making offers, negotiating terms, completing contingencies and getting to the closing table. The right agent can help you get an offer accepted when competing with other buyers in a hot real estate market.

Source: Laura Adams, senior real estate analyst at Aceable, a mobile education platform that offers accredited real estate education in Florida and the U.S.

Ready to make a Move?

Bardell Real Estate are the experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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98% of Investors Putting Money in Commercial

by Elsa Soto | May 31, 2022 | Blog, Homeowners, News, Real Estate News

98% of Investors Putting Money in Commercial

98% of Investors Putting Money in Commercial RE

Survey: Thanks to recent stock market gyrations, investors are moving to real estate. They consider it stable and less likely to lose value until things cool down.

NEW YORK – Even before the war in Ukraine brought more uncertainty to an already turbulent stock market, 2022 held great promise for online property investing platform CrowdStreet. Its 2022 Investor Benchmark Survey found that 98% of respondents plan to make at least one private equity real estate investment in 2022, while 65% plan to invest less in stocks and bonds. While CrowdStreet raised $1.2 billion from retail investors last year – twice as much as ever before in a single year – funds raised since January 1 show it will likely outpace its 2021 performance.

CrowdStreet, the nation’s largest online private equity real estate investing platform, drew respondents from its network of accredited investors. All 1,111 survey participants were in complete agreement on their plans to invest in private equity real estate enthusiastically this year.

Key survey findings showed:

66% plan to allocate more of their investment portfolios to commercial real estate (CRE)
32% plan to make four or more CRE investments
More than 25% would like to invest $200,000in CRE
82% are interested in investing at least$50,000in CRE

Enthusiasm for commercial real estate investing stems in part from the conventional wisdom that Wall Street faces a bumpy ride this year as evidenced by pervasive first-quarter volatility.

“Clearly, investors aren’t expecting outsize stock market gains another year in a row,” CrowdStreet’s CEO Tore Steen said. “They’re diversifying their portfolios and balancing risk with commercial real estate.”

Most Investor Benchmark Survey respondents had at least one year of private equity real estate investing experience, while a quarter had five or more. A plurality of these investors have made at least one investment in CRE projects, while an impressive three-quarters of those who self-identified as experienced investors have made seven or more.

One survey participant expressed forward-looking optimism that captures the mood among many high-net-worth investors regarding their portfolios: “If it proves to be a way to grow wealth beyond stock returns, I will invest more.”

What are investors’ top reasons for adding private real estate to their portfolios?

CrowdStreet’s survey responses revealed three key reasons investors are increasingly turning to real estate investing:

The desire for portfolio diversification
The passive income it can offer
The ability to earn above-market returns

Investors also cited investing for the long-term and wealth preservation as further relevant reasons for investing in CRE.

But an underlying concern motivating real estate investing came from investors’ desire to temper stock market exposure “by allocating more of their portfolios to alternative investments, including real estate,” Steen said. “Given current market volatility, it’s not surprising that 35% of respondents ranked portfolio diversification first among the reasons they invest in CRE.”

Source: https://www.floridarealtors.org/news-media/news-articles/2022/05/98-investors-putting-money-commercial-re

Ready to make a Move?

Bardell Real Estate are the experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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Existing-home sales in April

by Elsa Soto | May 27, 2022 | News, Real Estate News

Existing-home sales in April

Existing Home Sales

WASHINGTON (May 19, 2022) – Existing-home sales recorded a third straight month of declines, slipping slightly in April, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Month-over-month sales were split amongst the four major U.S. regions, with two areas posting gains and the other two experiencing waning in April. Year-over-year sales struggled, as each of the four regions reported dips.

Total existing-home sales,¹ https://www.nar.realtor/existing-home-sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, slid 2.4% from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.61 million in April. Year-over-year, sales dropped 5.9% (5.96 million in April 2021).

“Higher home prices and sharply higher mortgage rates have reduced buyer activity,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “It looks like more declines are imminent in the upcoming months, and we’ll likely return to the pre-pandemic home sales activity after the remarkable surge over the past two years.”

Total housing inventory² at the end of April amounted to 1,030,000 units, up 10.8% from March and down 10.4% from one year ago (1.15 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 2.2-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 1.9 months in March and down from 2.3 months in April 2021.

“Housing supply has started to improve, albeit at an extremely sluggish pace,” said Yun.

He also noted the rare state of the current marketplace.

“The market is quite unusual as sales are coming down, but listed homes are still selling swiftly, and home prices are much higher than a year ago,” said Yun.

“Moreover, an increasing number of buyers with short tenure expectations could opt for 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages, thereby assuring fixed payments over five years because of the rate reset,” he added. “The cash buyers, not impacted by mortgage rate changes, remain elevated.”

The median existing-home price³ for all housing types in April was $391,200, up 14.8% from April 2021 ($340,700), as prices increased in each region. This marks 122 consecutive months of year-over-year increases, the longest-running streak on record.

Properties typically remained on the market for 17 days in April, equal to both the number of days in March 2022 and in April 2021. Eighty-eight percent of homes sold in April 2022 were on the market for less than a month.

First-time buyers were responsible for 28% of sales in April, down from 30% in March and from 31% in April 2021. NAR’s 2021 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers – released in late 2021⁴ – reported that the annual share of first-time buyers was 34%.

All-cash sales accounted for 26% of transactions in April, down from 28% in March and up from the 25% recorded in April 2021.

Individual investors or second-home buyers, who make up many cash sales, purchased 17% of homes in April, down from 18% in March and equal to 17% in April 2021.

Distressed sales⁵ – foreclosures and short sales – represented less than 1% of sales in April, equal to the percentage seen in March and down from 2% in April 2021.

According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.98% in April, up from 4.17% in March. The average commitment rate(link is external) across all of 2021 was 2.96%.

Realtor.com®’s Market Trends Report(link is external) in April shows that the largest year-over-year median list price growth occurred in Miami (+38.3%), Las Vegas (+32.6%), and Orlando (+30.7%). Austin reported the highest growth in the share of homes that had their prices reduced compared to last year (+6.8 percentage points), followed by Las Vegas (+5.3 percentage points) and Sacramento (+4.7 percentage points).

Single-family and Condo/Co-op Sales

Single-family home sales decreased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million in April, down 2.5% from 5.12 million in March and down 4.8% from one year ago. The median existing single-family home price was $397,600 in April, up 14.8% from April 2021.

Existing condominium and co-op sales were recorded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 620,000 units in April, down 1.6% from March and down 13.9% from one year ago. The median existing condo price was $340,000 in April, an annual increase of 13.1%.

“As we find ourselves in the midst of a massive housing shortage, NAR continues to work with leaders across the private and public sectors to help close this deficit,” said NAR President Leslie Rouda Smith, a Realtor® from Plano, Texas, and a broker associate at Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate in Dallas. “As the nation’s largest real estate association, we are urging policymakers to enact zoning reforms, homebuilder incentives, and other necessary regulations to help correct this situation.”

Regional Breakdown

Existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 1.5% in April, reaching an annual rate of 670,000, a 10.7% drop from April 2021. The median price in the Northeast was $412,100, up 8.1% from one year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest grew 3.1% from the prior month to an annual rate of 1,310,000 in April, a 1.5% slide from April 2021. The median price in the Midwest was $282,000, an 8.7% increase from one year ago.

Existing-home sales in the South fell 4.6% in April, posting an annual rate of 2,490,000, which represents a decrease of 5.7% from one year ago. The median price in the South was $352,100, a 22.2% climb from one year prior. For the eighth consecutive month, the South recorded the highest pace of price appreciation in comparison to the other three regions. Additionally, the South is the only region to report year-over-year double-digit price gains.

Existing-home sales in the West dipped 5.8% compared to the previous month, registering an annual rate of 1,140,000 in April, down 8.1% from one year ago. The median price in the West was $523,000, up 4.3% from April 2021.

The National Association of Realtors® is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.5 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

# # #

For local information, please contact the local association of Realtors® for data from local multiple listing services (MLS). Local MLS data is the most accurate source of sales and price information in specific areas, although there may be differences in reporting methodology.

Ready to make a Move?

Bardell Real Estate are the experts in helping you with your selling, buying or renting needs near Orlando, Florida. Make your Disney area experience a forever memorable one. Call us now to speak to a real estate agent.

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Saturday Night Rodeo at River Ranch

by Elsa Soto | May 26, 2022 | Blog, Local Events, News, Real Estate News, Things to Do in Orlando

At Westgate River Ranch Resort, cowpokes and bronco busters gather every Saturday night from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. to participate in rodeos inside the 1,200-seat arena..

Saturday Night Rodeo at River Ranch

It has been a long standing tradition for many families visiting Central Florida to attend the Saturday Night Rodeo at Westgate River Ranch Resort near Lake Wales. The calf roping, barrel racing, trick riding, bull riding, and rodeo clown antics take center stage at this real-life rodeo. During the rodeo, your kids will have the opportunity to participate in a real “calf scramble.” There is a patriotic, flag-waving tribute to our armed forces that includes classic country songs like Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue.”

River Ranch Dinner & Dance Party

The fun doesn’t stop once the Florida rodeo ends! If you feel bull riding isn’t that tough, then take a spin on a Mechanical Bull. After that, get your feet moving during the lively Dance Party just outside the River Ranch Saloon. Enjoy music and games from a lively DJ to end a perfect day.

Adults $25 / Children (ages 5-12) $15. Children 4 & under are complimentary. Call to confirm 863-692-1321.