Lance Mohr & Team

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Lance Mohr & Team

Tampa2Enjoy.com

(813) 317-4009

Tampa Real Estate

Understanding The QUALITY of The Home You Are Buying

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In this video, I go over some of the things buyers should know and understand before they buy a home. I talk about someone who paid $493,000 for a home that was built in 1996 by US Homes. They either did not know the type of builder US Homes was or they did not care. Well, US Homes was an entrance (low end) level, builder. I do not understand why someone would spend a 1/2 million dollars on a low end built home? You will be paying an upper-end price for a product that uses lower end material.

Transcription

Hi everyone. This is your Tampa bay realtor Lance Mohr and in this video, I want to talk about understanding what you are buying because I see every now and then a lot of buyers getting bamboozled because they don’t really understand the quality of construction and different type of builders. Neither do the real estate agents or even the appraiser. I’m going to go over what’s important about this and what you need to understand and know before you buy a home or for that matter even write a contract on a home.

I had a client send me a property the other day. It already sold. He wanted me to use as a comparable for his so I started looking at it and I noticed it is an about twenty-five hundred something square feet and it sold four-hundred and ninety-three thousand dollars. I’m like hmm I wonder who the builder is. I’m sitting there thinking it’s something equivalent to maybe a Rutenberg or maybe a Cardel sort of an upper-end builder, semi-custom builder, and custom builder and I was shocked to see it was a US Home and I thought to myself “oh my gosh! I cannot believe someone would pay four hundred and ninety-three thousand dollars for a US home and take nothing away from US home but let me just sort of explain US home is an entry-level builder. They were always an entrance level builder. Matter of fact years ago in the early 2000s Lennar ended up purchasing them as their entry-level builder and then they just found out they were a real piece of junk company they ended up shutting them down then for some reason the brought them back over in New Tampa and Live Oaks again and then they ended up shutting them down again. Again they were just the entrance level builder so I’m looking at this home at four hundred and ninety-three thousand dollars and sure it has good architectural detail with columns outside and you’ve looked inside the home and it has some a deep attention to detail inside the home but the problem is they’re basically building the same home as an entry-level home. They’re just making it look a lot nicer. I mean again it’s one of those things you could put lipstick on a pig but at the end of the day it’s still a pig and I don’t want to be that mean about it but I’m looking out and I’m sitting there thinking to myself well this is the same quality of construction is behind the walls. The same type of wood, the same type of insulation, the same contractors are all pretty much being used. They’re just making everything grander cosmetically and I really feel personally I just can’t believe someone would spend half a million dollars on a US home.

Now if they go in and it’s a Cardel. Well, Cardel is an upper-end builder or builder equivalent Homes by Westbay or Rutenberg, a really good builder. That’s what I would expect. I just didn’t expect this and I think the problem is when people were buying these homes, they’re not really and I say the buyer, the buyer may not know but they’re going to real estate agents, the real estate agents aren’t really doing a lot of research and they’re just thinking okay well it looks nice, it’s big, it’s in a nice area but what about the utility bills and it’s sort of like a car, you could go buy a car and it might look really nice inside outside but if it’s going to break down all the time, if the maintenance is really bad. Are you going to buy it? Then it’s sort of like that looking at this with the US Home the insulation isn’t going to be anywhere near the insulation of say a Cardel, a West Bay, a Rutenburg not that WestBay was even in existence when this home was built in the late 90s but the appraiser goes out there and unfortunately appraisers are very complacent and a lot of appraisers just don’t know what they’re looking at because they don’t look at many homes when they an appraiser goes out and doesn’t appraise a lot of home they’re looking at one home and one home only that’s the subject property. They’re just looking at the other ones and seeing the other ones in black and white and take nothing away from appraisers there’s a lot that understands a lot about homes but some of them don’t and I even had an appraiser compared a Lennar and a Ryland years ago with an art the Rutenberg so all I would say is do your homework, get an agent that understands the different types of builders. Just so you know they could be perfectly happy in the home and they could even know it’s a Us home and know about the history of Us Homes and know what type of quality US Home was being built to and they might still like it, you might still like it but it’s understanding. I personally would never buy a US Home for five hundred thousand dollars at least today. I just can’t see it. I know what the insulation is going to be like. I know what the quality of construction was like behind the walls. They could fix it all up and make it look nice outside and make it look nice inside, but I do this video because I just think you need to be educated when you’re looking at the homes when I look at homes and I go through I always look at the builders. Now there are some builders that I don’t know who they are. They were built before my time. Maybe they were just a small little builder but that’s not the vast majority of it. The vast majority are the bigger builders, the Rutenbergs, the Centex's, the Lennar's, back then the US homes, now the Homes by WestBay, the Cardel's, the Cal Atlantic's, etc.

So understand who the builder is and that’s the whole point of this video. Just get educated on who built the home in what type of builder they are. It’s sort of like I would tell people in this price range would you rather have homes by West Bay build a home that’s used to building homes in the fours, the five the six hundred thousand dollars range or would you rather have a Centex where is an entrance level builder who would rather have built your home for the same price because that if a builders building if they’re an upper-end builder and their building down there is still using the same quality of construction the same people built in the home that’s an entrance level builder building up. They are still using the same people much like a car you have $30,000 to spend on a car would you rather have a Mercedes Benz build it or would you rather have Kia build it so that’s all I’m saying.

I hope this video helps you. If you have any questions at all please feel free to contact me and if you like these videos share them on Facebook, share them with your friends. Have a wonderful day.

My YouTube channel https://youtube.com/tampa2enjoy has hundreds of educational real estate videos. From buying, selling a house to tips for first time home buyers. Don't forget to share these videos with your friends. Thank you.

Tampa Real Estate News – July 2014 Market Update

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Take a look at the video about to view the latest Tampa real estate news and statistics for July 2014. This real estate market update will give you great insight as to what kind of market we are in. The data comes directly from My Florida Regional MLS. MFRMLS is the MLS provider for all Realtors in Central Florida.

Transcript:

Hi everybody this is Lance Mohr I’m getting these real estate statistics done early this month and the reason why I do this is for you the home buyers and home sellers in the Tampa area.  Can you imagine going out and looking for a home and spending could be weeks or months and finally finding the perfect home you like after all that time, the nights, the weekends, and all the looking and driving around and not really understand what type of real estate market we are in and then you lose the home to another buyer?  That’s really why I do this so you have a good idea not only where it is overall but where the real estate market is more specifically for your price range as well.

So let’s start off and go over and we will talk about the overview page.  We are going to talk about the actives right here.  We can see the active homes for sale have been going up.  If you look back to October of 2013 they were 4,680 and now they are 5,225 so they have gone up quite a bit.  We can go over to pending as you can see; they are really floating up and down but they are pretty steady around 3,300 in the low 3,000s and then you go down to the sold homes and as you can see we are on a good part of the year right now, the summer months which they are generally a little higher and in the May, June, July and even August timeframe as well and you will start to see a dip in September area.

Here’s the thing a lot of people don’t pay attention to is the pending homes as a percentage of the active.  I know a lot of times I sort of skip through this but the higher the number, the more of a seller’s market it is.  You can see right here 58% in June and now we are at 63%.  You can see it has been basically in the 60s and 70s since about the beginning of the year even October of last year and then probably the most important statistic right here is the supply and demand; basically the health of the market.  We are still under 4 months of inventory.  As I say six months is a stable market and not really a buyer or sellers so if the average sales price is about $180,000 or so, you are looking at six months of inventory.  So we are at a little under 4, at 3.76 months of inventory.  It is definitely a seller’s market.  Keep in mind when you also look at it you have to figure there is a certain percentage of the homes that home buyers are looking at and it is good for sellers to know this, but a lot of the homes are overpriced.  You might have probably 50% if not even a little bit more of the homes that are actually overpriced and some of them are just going to be in really, really bad condition and then some of them are going to be in bad condition and then average, then good, then really good.  Of course everybody is looking at the home that is a nice home in a nice area for a fair price and depending on your price range you are probably going to be competing with other home buyers.  I just had one of my buyers this week we put an offer in at $150,000 home and unfortunately there were 37 other offers.  That is not normal but still you don’t want to be in that situation.

So anyhow let’s take a little bit closer look at homes right here.   As you can see I color coded these to make it a little easier on people; the active, the pending, and the sold.  If we go down here to the inventory you can see even up to $500,000 the inventory is very, very low.  4.26 months from $300,000 to $500,000 is extremely tight inventory and it is low or anything below that. So anywhere from $500,000 – unless the inventory is very low.  Now one thing keep in mind on short sales is you can see where we are at in short sales right now.  If you look at the percentage of short sales on the market actively available you are looking at 9% of the market.  Thirty-two, almost 1/3 of every home that has a contract and is in the MLS is having a contract on it is a short sale but 7% actually are selling.  That’s about 21-22% of the homes are actually selling or closing that are short sales so you want to keep that in mind if you are going after a short sale and that is the avenue you want to go down.

I hope you like this information.  I hope this helps whether you are a home buyer or home seller.  I can’t tell you how many people over the last several years have been working with another real estate agent in Tampa and then they come to me and they realize the market that we are in and it changes everything.  It is really important if your realtor is not up to date on the market and what is going on then you need to be.  Hopefully they should be I know a lot of them are not but they don’t pull these statistics and get the information but definitely they should be and hopefully this helps you.  If you have any questions please shoot me an email and give me a call.  If you haven’t been to my website lately Tampa2enjoy.com and I know most of you have, definitely take a look.  It has been completely revamped.  Tons and tons and tons of helpful information; crime reports, school statistics, lifestyle search which is incredible; you can go in and you can find where health clubs are, where hospitals are, where restaurants are, where schools are all around where you live or where you want to live and of course I do the home buyer webinars.  I have tons of educational videos on the website.  Of course you can go to the website every month.  I do these market updates so you can go back several months and look at these.  Alright have a great day.  If you know anybody looking at buying or selling please give me a call.  If you like my website please like it on Facebook.  I have a Facebook like button there and Google Plus.  Have a great day.

Please visit my real estate blog for more Tampa real estate news. I do monthly statistics so you are kept in the loop. View June statistics: click here

April 2014 Real Estate Market Statistics

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Transcript:

Hi, this is Lance Mohr with Future Home Realty and I wanted to go over the real estate market statistics for April 2014. And most people have watched these before, but just so you understand these statistics are for single-family homes in Hillsborough County.

Now if you own a home in the Central Pasco County there is like Wesley Chapel, Land O Lakes then I would go off these statistics because they are a little bit more relevant than probably the Pasco statistics because Pasco plays into to affect Zephyrhills, Hudson, and New Port Richey which are a lot slower.

Anyhow, let me just go over this: Most everything looks pretty similar to what it did last month, as you can see right here the active inventory jumped up a little bit by about 29 homes. You have the inventory right here: pending sales jumped up quite a bit from about 3370 to 3566 so that is a pretty good jump. It definitely shows you the marketing is going really well. You have down here under sold, the sold homes in April as you can see jumped up about 100 homes as well. So again things are going really good.

Overall, I think home buyers don’t think the market is as good as it is and I think a lot of home sellers actually think the market is deader than it is, so I would just keep in mind where we are in the market. The inventory is low. You can see right here the inventory has gone down. It was down and in three months. It jumped up to 8 in January, 5-1/2 months went down a little bit in February to 4.87 months. In March it was 3.92 months and in April 3.66 months. Of course keep in mind a stable market is about 6 months of inventory or it is not really a buyer or seller’s market so it definitely is a buyer’s market especially if you are under 200 or 250. But let me just point out one thing that is a little bit not too surprising because I have been talking about it since October of last year but it might surprise a lot of people. If you look right here under the actives and look at what the short sales are doing.

Let’s just take in January. They were 10% of the market and now they are 9% of the market. You are not seeing a huge difference on homes that are pending in January they were 46% of the market. In April, they were 36% of the market. Here is a thing that might surprise a lot of you and I’ve been saying since October this is what was going to happen with what is going on with the Relief Act not getting passed. In January, the amount of short sales that were closed were 12%. In April, just 4 months later it has dropped literally in half down to 6%. You can see what the bank owned did. The bank owned was 23% in January, fluctuated a little bit and now they are about 23% so they pretty much stayed the same. As you can see traditional sales have gone from 64% of all the closings to 71% but it is the short sales that are staggering.

What is going on is a lot of banks are just not telling people they can do short sales and people are going through the whole process and waiting 2, 3, 4, and 6 months and then they are just denying the short sale all in all or they are just being so absurd about what they want it is just not working out. So just keep that in mind if you are doing a short sale you really need to hire someone who knows what the heck they are doing. This is not one of those things you just want to assume every realtor is the same or you can literally pay tens of thousands of dollars more for that mistake.

April 2014 Statistics for Buyers

If you are buying a home, just understand there is a good possibility the bank may reject and have your real estate agent ask a lot of questions:

  • Who are the banks?
  • How many banks are there?
  • How cooperative is the seller?
  • Have they gotten their package ready or have they even gotten a short sale package?

There are a lot of things you need to ask up front or your agent should be asking. Again, I know a lot of buyers like to think all real estate agents are the same but believe me it is like anything, they are not.

So we go over to individual statistics over here and as you can see when we are in the $100,000 to $200,000 range you can see how low the inventory is. It is 2.83 months there is very low inventory so if you are looking under $200,000 and you see a home you like, you need to write an offer and a good offer and assuming it is a good valued home, and of course if it is overpriced you are not going to want to make an offer on any house so that answers that question.

As far as homes from $200,000 to $300,000 a little over 4 months of inventory; that is still very low based off of this price range. Keep in mind the 6 months of a stable market is based off an average-priced home which in the Tampa area is around $180,000 so a $200,000 to $300,000 home those are above average and they have a very low inventory level. The same thing with $300,000 to $500,000 and the same thing with over $500,000; I mean you can’t look at this and say okay well the homes $385,000 in the inventory level is 5.71 months. If a home is at that value it is almost twice the market value of an average home but still the inventory level is less. So just keep that in mind when you are a buyer.

April’s Statistics for Sellers

When you are a seller again, you just have to get everything done. Buyers right now in today’s market are very, very fickle. They are just not wanting to go in and some of them just don’t have the money to go in and start putting a bunch of money into a home in interior and exterior paint, redoing kitchen cabinets or countertops, redoing floors, redoing fixtures. You really need to spend a little money up front and get this done. I would personally hire an interior decorator to make sure all the colors flow and match well.

April 2014 Conclusion

So that is really where we are in the market. If anybody has any questions please don’t hesitate to give me a call. You can email me on this information right here. Here are some more of my websites. It’s not really coming through that good but you can always go on my home buyer website and do a webinar and go to tbbuyerwebinar.com. If you are looking at selling a home you can go to the free seller webinar. They are done twice per week at tbsellerwebinar.com. TB stands for Tampa Bay.

Alright have a great day. Thank you. If you have any questions let me know. Please like my webpage if you go on there and have a great day. Thank you.

Cheap Ways to Remodel Your Kitchen

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For most homeowners, the kitchen is the heart of every household. Practically, a lot of homeowners spend a lot of time in their kitchen rather than in their living room. The kitchen is not only the most used room in the house, but it also brings the most weight when the time comes for you to sell your home. Potential home buyers, for the most part, prefer to invest in homes with furnished and majestic kitchens.

picture of a ChefRemodeling a kitchen is by far one of the best and most effective ways to improve your home’s overall value and aesthetic appeal. As the name implies, kitchen remodeling enhances the look and appearance of your kitchen. On top of that, it improves your kitchen’s functionality and purpose. Remodeled kitchens not only look more appealing than their older counterparts, but they are more efficient as well.

A kitchen remodeling project, however, is a costly endeavor for any homeowner. For the most part, remodeling a kitchen would cost more than a thousand dollars. Luckily for you as well as other homeowners, there is a cheap way to remodel your kitchen.

When remodeling a kitchen on a tight budget, the first thing you have to do is to come up with an overall kitchen design. With the help of the internet and home remodeling magazines, look for kitchen ideas that best suit your kitchen space, home design, and personal preferences. Aside from photos of outdoor kitchens on magazines and the internet, you can also get inspiration and ideas from the kitchens displayed in showrooms and stores. If you have found a kitchen that you like on a store or showroom, take note of it and make sure to take pictures of the kitchen design.

Once you have a kitchen design, the next thing you have to do is to start planning on your DIY kitchen remodeling project. Once again, the internet can be a good reference for you to learn how to plan a kitchen remodeling project. On the internet, you will find a lot of blogs, community forums, as well as websites that contain information on how to plan and build kitchens. Aside from helping you create a layout for your kitchen, these online sources also contain essential tips on how to reduce your kitchen remodeling expenses. With these online sources, you will find a lot of insightful suggestions and pointers that will help you land the best deals for kitchen fixtures, cabinets, floor tiles, and other components of your kitchen.

Inspect your kitchen and take note of the components that need to be replaced. By doing so, you will be able to save a fair amount of money from your kitchen remodeling. To create the beautiful kitchen that you can be proud of, you do not have to replace all its components. If a fixture or component is not broken, then there is no need to fix it or replace it.

Head down to the nearest DIY store, go to the kitchens department, and buy the components needed for your kitchen.  After that, go back home, and slowly install these components on your own. If you opt to install these parts on your own, you will get to eliminate labor costs, resulting to bigger savings.

If you have any questions about your homes value click here for Tampa home prices.

Buying Homes in Florida Tampa Communities

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beach house imagesAre you searching through the various communities in Tampa , Florida to find that perfect home – a place that will offer you a peaceful, serene way where you can enjoy life in the luxury of the bounties of nature? Like most people, you yearn for that dream home where at the end of a busy day you could unwind in a quiet and blissful atmosphere, far from the maddening noise of the city life.

Unfortunately, the past few years have been hard for many. Businesses closing, banks not lending on anything, and unemployment getting higher and higher. It’s not surprising that so many homeowners ended up defaulting on their mortgages and going into foreclosure. And forget about anyone purchasing a home at that point – it is almost impossible.

However, times are changing again – this time for the good. As per the most recent surveys regarding home sales in the state of Florida – the market in definitely on the rise. The home sales have bucked the trends prevalent in other states across the country, having shown a rise of about 15 % to previous year comparison basis, and all because the homes are being sold at such low costs. Now is the time to take advantage of this new trend and get the home of your dreams. [Read more…]

Tampa Real Estate Status

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Not only is Tampa known for its highly rated schools, unique shops and quiet neighborhood, it is also known for its booming real estate status. This beautiful peninsula has been developed to offer great housing opportunities, including single family homes, condominiums, villas and many others. What’s more exciting is the strategic location of modern Tampa communities, making commutes from home to work and vice versa shorter and more convenient – not to mention that major hospitals and other essential amenities are only a few minutes drive. Every neighborhood in Tampa has a unique character that you and your family will sure enjoy.

From popular subdivisions to modern high-rise building homes, there are limitless options for your new address. For instance, down at northwest Tampa, you get a gated community with exclusive access to golf courses, tennis courts and other sports and leisure amenities. Upscale and gated subdivisions await you and your family in Tampa’s more exclusive subdivisions, boasting multi-million dollar clubhouses and leisure opportunities that only residents can enjoy. In addition to the excellent weather that Tampa residents enjoy, more luxury abounds its high-end properties and more prestigious addresses. Prices of new homes range from $200,000 to millions. [Read more…]

Take a Look at New Downtown Tampa Condos

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Trendy and urban Tampa neighborhoods are now on the rise. With Tampa condos, living within walking distance of the community’s busiest spots has been made possible. Imagine living where everything happens. Right at that corner is your favorite shopping mall, which is only a few steps away from your office. Having the leisure of walking through the park while going home from work or fetching the kids from school makes these living abode most inviting. Turning great architectural works into modern homes have become most profitable in this part of sunny Florida. Combining the essence of city vibe into suburban quiet family homes has never been made this exciting.

A few years ago, today’s busy Tampa districts were practically ghost towns. Thanks to the community’s supportive financing and strategic real estate projects, this once boring suburban community evolved into a modern yet family-friendly community. Condo projects approved by the FHA have created homes for thousands of families who saw the convenience and practicality of living in Tampa. Apparently, the list for either rental or condos for sale have become very limited. This only shows that more and more families are beginning to come to Florida and change their address to Tampa. [Read more…]

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Keller Williams Realty – Tampa, Florida

Mohr Home Group
18302 Highwood Preserve Parkway
Tampa, Florida 33647
(813) 317-4009 | Map | Email
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