Hello and thank you for reading my blog.
I met a great local artist this week, Nadja Marks-Shafton, who is a devoted and prolific artist. She was born on the coast of Massachusetts in a quaint fishing village by Plymouth. Her South African mother’s work allowed her family to travel three months at a time while she was home-schooled by her father. She has interesting stores and her childhood expeditions are visible in her vibrant paintings. After you read my blog, please see www.Nadjamarks-shafton.com Nadja’s husband is one of my team mates at Michael Saunders & Company.
Thinking about buying a home but had a prior foreclosure? Don’t wait too long because interest rates are rising and so are home prices. To be approved for an FHA loan, your foreclosure must be at least five years prior and they are very strict about the date, which is when the bank took ownership. With an FHA loan, the down payment is 3.5% and the home must be a primary residence. With a conventional loan, you must wait at least seven years for financing and the down payment is higher.
If you are a senior and think you are too old to buy, just think about the tax savings you are giving up without mortgage interest and property taxes. You’ll build equity, have a larger place to live, and have a nest egg to pass to your beneficiaries.
Linda’s List
5302 Cape Leyte in Siesta Isles; walk to Siesta Beach, 2BR with den, garage, some terrazzo flooring, large screened lanai situated on large lot with 22 mature palms in back. Reduced to $619,000.
7349 Starfish Drive in Coral Cove, west of the Trail, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, granite, terrazzo flooring, boating community with Bayfront park and boat launch. $409,000.
1223 N. Casey Key on the Island of Casey Key, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 100 feet on the gulf and 100 feet on the bay for boating. Florida charm, both private and tranquil $4,100,000.
Recent Palmer Ranch Home Sales: In your homebuying analysis, use the home’s square footage and “PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT.” Note that many of the newer homes are smaller (i.e., Isles of Sarasota and Cobblestone), but many Buyers are choosing Arbor Lakes, where they find larger homes for less price per square foot. Don’t overlook resales because we have very charming, well-built homes, some of which are on golf courses such as Stoneybrook, Country Club of Sarasota, and Prestancia. For example, in Prestancia, the average price/sq ft of homes sold was $214 and the square footage was 3,823…HUGE! Look at the deals in Country Club of Sarasota, where there are large homes at awesome prices.
Mira Lago looks like a good deal with an average sold price of $169 per sq ft; however, homes are advertised as maintenance-free but owners are responsible for the roofs, and that may cost around $30,000.
Other things to look at for resales: has the home been re-plumbed? Defective plumbing materials are common in older homes and condos. Was Chinese drywall used? How old are the roof and the HVAC? Is it in a flood zone and if so, how much will flood insurance cost? You’ll need a good home inspector and I can refer you to the top 3 in Sarasota, Florida.
Here’s how Palmer Ranch did this past winter in terms of homes sold:
Numbers below reflect the size (average square footage), the average sold price, and the price per square foot.
New Homes: Arbor Lakes, size: 3,064 sq ft, $495,000 average price, $160 per sq ft.
Cobblestone (new), 2,164; $512,000, $236.
Sandhill Preserve (new), 2,282, $524,000, $231.
Resales:
Country Club of Sarasota: 3023 sq ft, $520,000 sold price, $175 per sq ft.
Deer Creek, 2,801, $554,000, $198.
Gulf Gate East, 1,450, $309,583, $193.
Huntington Pointe, 2,183, $373,792, $173.
Isles of Sarasota (newer), 1,922, $387,100, $201.
Marbella, 1803, $333,000, $184.
Mira Lago, 1,931, $325,225, $169.
Prestancia, 3,823, $821,211, $214.
Sandhill Preserves 2,282, $524,633, $231.
Savannah at Turtle Rock 2,026, $374,800, $185.
Silver Oak, 3,405, $788,625, $232.
Stoneybrook, 2,545, $570,000, $224.
Sunrise Golf Course, 1,633, $273,071, $168.
The Hamptons, 2,910, $491,000, $171.
Turtle Rock, 2,407, $437,703, $183.
Villagewalk (newer), 2,091, $448,100, $215.
Wellington Chase, 1,662, $296,375, $178.
If you are looking for a smaller, newer second home, I would take you to The Isles and Villagewalk. If you prefer a charming, established neighborhood with higher end homes, I would take you to Prestancia and Country Club of Sarasota. Silver Oaks is high end, gated community but flanked by an apartment complex on the west side, and new construction to the south. Deer Creek is a gated (with a gate guard sitting at the gate 24/7), that is beautifully maintained, and there are also villas that sell for significantly less. Stoneybrook is gated with a call box, and Mira Lago has a gate code with easy access…not my favorite in terms of security.
Title Insurance and Surveys: Listing your home? Be sure to give your listing agent the property survey and owners’ policy for title insurance. When you are under contract, the closing agent will conduct a title search to see if there are problems with the title. You could have inherited problems when you purchased the home and did not know it. An owners’ title policy will pay for damages caused by lost property value due to the defective title. If you purchased a foreclosure, the closing agent was hired by the bank and did not represent the Buyer, so if you do not have a current survey, it’s best to get one now and see if there are any defects; otherwise, you may have problems when you are trying to sell the property. Examples of title defects: a pool was added and it crosses setback lines. (A setback line marks a boundary where structures cannot be built.) Another common defect: your fence or driveway may be on your neighbor’s property. It gets complicated with deed restrictions in neighborhoods. When using a law firm to close, Buyers get legal representation at no additional cost to clear title defects; this takes time and can hold up the closing!!
You can look at your survey and spot defects if there were improvements (fences, pools, HVAC condensers) added to the property where they should not be. New survey methods are much more accurate than those in the past. In a deed-restricted community with a homeowners association, if you have encroachments (i.e., your driveway or fence is on your neighbor’s land), homeowners can protest. Every association has one or two members who love to argue, and they may just protest your encroachments and refuse to grant you the variance needed to meet the county codes.
Never ever throw away your title insurance policy – issues can arise long after you have sold the home.
Lender’s Policy: According to the new closing disclosures (TRID), the owner’s title policy is optional but don’t believe you don’t need your own title insurance. If you bought your home and did not get title insurance because you saw on the closing documents that the lender has a policy, know that their policy protects the bank and not you. Your title policy provides coverage over and above the lender’s policy and you may regret the decision to opt out of buying your own title policy; the cost is minimal—you pay only the amount above the lender’s policy.
How will Owner’s Title Insurance protect you?
Improper execution of documents; mistakes in recording or indexing legal documents (clerks make mistakes); forgeries and fraud, unpaid taxes and assessments, unpaid judgments and liens, unreleased mortgages, incorrect interpretation of wills; mental incompetence of grantors on the deed; impersonation of the true owners of the land by fraudulent persons (i.e., “mistress signs for the wife of a Seller”), refusal of lender to provide financing based upon condition of title; refusal of potential purchaser to accept title based on condition of title.
If you have been reading my blog posts for a while, you know about the nightmare involving two new ski condos that I purchased in the Rocky Mountains. The builder ran out of money, and the contractors funded the projected out of pocket. Several months later, the owners all had mechanics liens on our titles because of the contractors’ unpaid bills. Owners were in court for many years recovering damages for our defective properties that burned, flooded, and had mold damage. I was lucky to get out alive, because they caught on fire when I was asleep on night! Many foreclosures were common in that development and a terrible stigma in the area. The homeowners association sued the contractors and developer, and vice-versa, but half a million dollar settlement won was not enough to bring the property up to standard, and the contractor who was hired to cure all of the defects wound up suing the homeowners association! I personally had two lawsuits in federal court against the contractors (I represented myself and won a settlement) and then I sued the realtors with the help of an attorney. You’ll have to read my book on this nightmare Motion to Intervene that should be finished this fall; it will make you scared to buy a new home with the 85 construction defects and code violations that we the owners had to deal with.
Thank you for reading my blog and do let me know if I can assist you with any Sarasota or Siesta Key real estate.
Don’t’ forget to check out our young, local artist, Nadja, at www.Nadjamarks-shafton.com
Most sincerely yours,
Linda Holley, Realtor, GRI, 941-914-4914 Michael Saunders & Company, Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL
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