Life In Bonita Springs

Go To Your Happy Place

This week has been full of change and struggle. My laptop has issues that are warranty covered so I shipped her off.  Meanwhile back at the ranch … with my much appreciated loaner laptop I am nearly lost. 

There is so much upon which I depend that will be gone for a week.  Most of which involve writing and maintaining Life in Bonita Springs.  After a bout of the shakes and cold sweats, I finally couldn’t take it any more and downloaded Windows Live Writer. 

This would be the wrong week to not have my gear.  I’m hosting a blogging class to teach some “how to” about blogging basics on WordPress and more advanced use including Windows Live Writer.  If you’re interested in attending find me on Facebook and look for my events.

I feel so much better … and publish.

Help Put Food on a Bonita Springs Table

July 6, 2009, Bonita Springs, FL -   For over 25 years the Bonita Springs Assistance Office has been providing aid to the Bonita Springs community.  Whether it’s assistance during a catastrophic flood, camp scholarships for children, or a bag of food for a struggling family, the Assistance Office has been there to help our fellow citizens.  Now the need is increasing, and the food pantry shelves are extremely bare.

AdSource, a marketing and graphic design firm in Bonita Springs, is helping organize a community food drive now through July 19^th to promote and collect donations of food and toiletries.

Items most needed include 16 ounce boxes of rice, large boxes of cereal , instant mashed potatoes, cans of  tuna fish, Tuna Helper, coffee, apple sauce, canned chili and spaghetti sauce, ravioli, all kinds of juice, jelly, raisins, toilet paper, bar soap, liquid dishwashing detergent and baby diapers

Donations can be dropped off at the Bonita Springs Assistance Office,  10322 Pennsylvania Avenue (next to the Lion’s Club) or at AdSource ,  located at the corner of Renaissance Blvd. and US 41 in Bonita Springs, directly south the of the “big ship”.  

The Bonita Springs Assistance Office provides temporary assistance to residents of Bonita Springs who have been affected by an unexpected crisis.  The goal is to foster independence and self reliance through education and by bridging the financial needs of the recipient.

When faced with a crisis, those seeking assistance are required to complete an application and are then carefully screened to determine need.  Services available to those who qualify include food from the pantry, financial assistance with rent or mortgage, utilities, medications, medical and dental needs, gas vouchers, clothing, school supplies, as well as referral services.

Thank you in advance for helping fellow Bonita Springs residents.

HVCC is Just As Ugly As Suspected

Remember this little post about real estate appraisals last week?  It also ran in the Naples Daily News - The HVCC Wal-Mart Effect.  Well, this week NAR, the National Association of Realtors® released a study that was taken by survey.  The results:

• Approximately 76 percent of Realtors® representing buyers or sellers indicated that the time to obtain a completed appraisal increased after May 1; 69 percent of those reporting increased appraisal times reported an increase of over 8 days.
• Lost sales were reported by 37 percent of Realtors® attempting to complete home sales, with 17 percent reporting one lost sale and 20 percent reporting more than one lost sale.
• Reports of lost sales will impact the fallout rate in Pending Home Sales, although some of the sales may ultimately be completed on a delayed basis.
• An increased use of out-of-area Appraisers was reported by 70 percent of Realtors® seeking to complete a sale.
• The number of NAR Appraiser members reporting that they obtain over 50% of assignments from AMCs increased from 14 percent to 39 percent after May 1.
• Approximately half of NAR Appraiser members reported a reduction in fees received by them, and 70 percent of NAR Appraiser members reported that consumers were paying higher fees.
• Time for an appraiser to submit an appraisal to the AMC decreased, as reported by 71 percent of NAR Appraiser members.
• Approximately 85 percent of NAR Appraiser members reported a perceived reduction in appraisal quality.
• Among Realtor® respondents obtaining an appraisal for a client, 55 percent reported a perceived decrease in appraisal quality.
• NAR Appraiser members reported a significant number of assignments in unfamiliar geographic areas: for example, 16 percent reported that more than 11 percent of their assignments were in unfamiliar areas.

It turned back to purple again.  That was weird. 

I still hope I don’t kill it.

Who Will Pay The HOA Fees?

Another Bonita Springs short sale bites the dust. It had been about of three months and still no word from the bank besides “maybe next week”. The bank had “maybe-next-weeked-us” for half of those nearly three months.

The buyer, who was not the first buyer to grow tired of waiting on this home, woke up on one random Wednesday and decided that it was more bother than it was worth. He then forfeited his place in line to buy this home, passing the baton to the next back up buyer.

Here we are years into this housing and economic crisis and everything is still the same as far as dealing with lenders and short sales. There has been absolutely no evolution to the process. I don’t know about you but I really can’t imagine running a business, such as a financial institution, and not eventually figuring out systems to liquidate these “assets”.

The waiting game is a huge deal killer. Buyers lose patience waiting and since there is little to no communication with the bank, the silence makes it seem as though nothing is being done. With no foreseeable end in sight the buyers either give up or they start shopping elsewhere.

The buyers aren’t scarce. The buyers are out there writing contracts. Unfortunately, the contract is about as far as some of them ever get. The banks still don’t get it. If there is more than one mortgage it’s a hornet’s nest. Throw in an investor that has an interest in the property into the mix and watch out. Investors like to charge buyers per diem rates if the property doesn’t close on time. How’s that for gratitude for buying a distressed property?

Further complicating the process for buyers has been the economic ripple effect and the job losses. There probably isn’t a real estate agent that hasn’t had a short sale contract cancelled because, during the course of waiting many moons for an approval from the lender, the buyer is laid off or loses their job. The buyer no longer qualifies for the loan.

It’s an economic influenza that just continues to spread because the source of the contamination hasn’t been treated. The banks remain the source of the sickness and their inability to liquidate their distressed homes is causing the spread of the illness.

If you think you’re not affected because you’re not currently buying or selling a home you’re wrong. Those sick banks continue to sneeze on property values and home owner associations and they’re getting them sick, too.

The banks can take their sweet time closing on a deal because they’re feet aren’t held to the fire to pay beyond six months of back HOA fees if the home is foreclosed. If it’s a short sale they can just refuse to pay all or part of the fees. The homes that slip into foreclosure rinse off a few years of back fees and your HOA eats the loss.

There’s an estimated one million option adjustable rate mortgages poised to reset in the next two years. Clearly the banks are not ready. Is your home owner association prepared to shoulder the expense of floating bank owned properties and short sales that default on their HOA fees?

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area.  Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor.  If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

You can subscribe to a weekly email newsletter by visiting www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com and entering your email in the subscription area on the left pane of the web page or by adding us to your reader by subscribing to this blog. Oh, and if you’re reading this content anywhere else but www.LifeInBonitaSprings.com or Naples Daily News it is probably stolen.

The Taste of Coconut Point is Sunday, July 12, 2009 from 11:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m.  The cost is $3 per person to join in the festivities and kids under 12 get in FREE.

Coconut Point Mall and the Taste of Coconut Point is located on US 41 in Estero, Florida.  The official website:

www.TasteOfCoconutPoint.com

LBD - My Real Estate Assistant

A little known part of being a real estate agent is checking listings.  This is the face I see on my way out the door.  It usually makes me load him up to go with me. 

When the snowbirds return up north their homes are left empty and sometimes they’re still on the market.  Real estate does sell in the summer - seriously.

Unfortunately, there are people that show real estate that just don’t use as much care as they should.  While most of us believe a home should be cared for just as though it’s our own there are other agents who leave lights on and doors unlocked.  Ridiculous, I know.  The fact that I have to *ask* to make sure lights are off and doors are locked when I set appointments is absurd, but I do it anyway.  Then i go check the property after the fact, anyway.  I mean we go check the property.

I’m pretty lucky that all of my listings are in a small radius sprinkled around Bonita Springs and Estero.  We hit the road after showings to do the check the lights and locks thing.  Sometimes I leave LBD in the car with the air conditioning running.  He’s an excellent guard dog.  Gray hair aside, he’d tear your shoe laces off if you tried to jack my whip.

Sometimes I catch him waiting for me, like really watching.  His eyes are a little blue and fuzzy at this age so it’s an effort to find me.  Sometimes he doesn’t find me so fast.

He doesn’t know I’m watching him here.

He doesn’t know I’m watching him here, either.

Or here either.

He does look happy being a real estate dog, though. This is his pensive look.  I think he’s thinking about how screwed up HVCC is or maybe even about cap and trade.  Maybe I’m way off trying to guess what he’s thinking.  Maybe he’s just thinking about scoring a cookie when we go through the bank drive through after we finish up the real estate rounds.

Your $8000 SHIP has come in. But are you first in line?

July 1, 2009 marked the new fiscal year for SHIP (State Housing Initiative Program), a state funded down payment assistance program for low-level income home buyers.  However, this year the $161 million grant used to fund this program has been cut to $30 million to fund the Florida Homebuyer Opportunity Program (FHOP).

The $30 million is split amongst the counties of Florida.  Each county then distributes the money based on city/area.  In most areas, this will mean that less than 10 first time homebuyers in any given city/area will receive an advance on their $8000 tax credit to use towards the purchase of a new home today.

If you are one of the lucky few to get the $8000 advance to use towards down payment, mortgage loan closing costs, or pre-pays associated with the purchase, here is what you need to know:

1. First-time home buyers this year are eligible for a federal income tax credit of up to $8,000 if their income generally is $75,000 or less for single taxpayers and $150,000 for married couples.
2. Anyone who hasn’t purchased a home in the past three years qualifies as a first-time home buyer.
3. Rather than let home buyers wait until 2009 tax returns are filed next April, Florida legislators decided to advance the $8,000 in an interest-free loan.
4. Buyers have to agree to file for the tax credit and to repay the money within 18 months.

To find out more about FHOP or to stake your claim for the $8000, contact your local SHIP office.  Click here to find your local SHIP office.  Oh, and one more thing, even though the program officially started on July 1, 2009, the cash is not there yet to make the loans to home buyers.

Should you not get the $8000 tax credit advance loan, do not worry.  100% USDA Guarantee Mortgage Loans are still in place and are still funding.  And 97% HomePath is still going strong.  Compare these two loans side-by-side.

Fourth of July 2009

If you do not see the slide show above visit theSlide Show on Flickr.

See You at The Parade & Laser Light Show