Tax Forms – What is Homestead Exemption?

This post is specific to property taxes in Seminole County, FL but will likely apply to other counties as well. Be sure to confirm dates and tax filing forms required for your county of residence. 

WHAT IS A HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION?

Homestead Exemption is a tax reduction allowable to homeowners who make their property their permanent residence. If approved, this exemption could reduce the taxable value of your residence by up to $50,000. The first $25,000 of this exemption applies to all taxing authorities. The second $25,000 of exemption excludes School Board 

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1746 Carillon Park, Oviedo, Florida - Oviedo Home For Sale

Oviedo Home For Sale - 761 S Lake Claire Circle

646 Balfour Dr, Winter Park, FL Home For Sale

Home for sale in Oviedo - Watch Video

New video on 'Just Reduced' listing in Oviedo! This home is nearly 3,000 sq ft and priced to sell at $264,900 with seller paying 2.5% of your closing costs! 

 

 

Email this property to a friend. 

Description: Better act quickly as this house is priced to sell! Shows like a MODEL HOME and can be ready for a quick closing. This 4 bedroom 2.5 baths with almost 3000 square feet has everything you have been looking for in a home. The downstairs is great for entertaining with a spacious living and dining room. The kitchen has a BREAKFAST BAR and nice dining nook. It overlooks the SPACIOUS FAMILY ROOM with sliding doors that open to your private backyard. Nestled among the shade trees, enjoy grilling on your outdoor patio while overlooking a greenbelt area. NO REAR NEIGHBORS! The upstairs is so large it feels like another house. The master bedrooms is sure to please with expansive space, including a sitting area, and walk in closet. The master bathroom is complete with DOUBLE VANITY, GARDEN TUB and WALK IN SHOWER. The other 3 bedrooms upstairs are larger than normal and are connected with a nice bonus area. Walk to the local A rated elementary school. Other amenities include UPDATED LIGHT FIXTURES, NEW CARPET AND TILE and newer A/C. This one won't last long! 

 

NBA Lock-Out’s Effect on Orlando

ORLANDO – The NBA has been in a lock-out and has already missed the first couple weeks of the season. Orlando has a lot at stake if the NBA does not work out their differences. The NBA All-Star game is scheduled to be in Orlando early next year. That weekend alone is expected to produce $80M – $100 Million of economic impact in the Orlando area.

Here’s a breakdown of who is working at the Amway Center besides Dwight Howard and his high-priced buddies:

- 550 hourly food service employees, and 21 who are salaried.

- 66 janitors.

- 125 ushers or ticker takers

Buddy Dyer took charge along with other NBA city Mayors and wrote a letter to David Stern and the NBA. Below is their letter:

An open letter to the National Basketball Association and the NBA Players Union from America’s Mayors:

We are the Mayors of our country’s NBA cities.  Every year, our residents pack the arenas where our teams play.  They buy the NBA’s products.  They cheer for their favorite players with passion and intensity.  They attend games and make lasting memories with family and friends.  Many own or work at small businesses that depend on NBA games for survival.  No matter how you look at it, our NBA teams are a vital part of the economic and social fabric of our cities.

Unfortunately, lost in the debate over a new NBA collective bargaining agreement, has been the perspective of those very residents and the negative impact a cancelled season might have on them, our cities and our local economies.

We know the issues being discussed between NBA owners and players are complex and need to be addressed to ensure the long-term wellbeing of the league.  We are not interested in taking a side.  The United States Conference of Mayors has always maintained impartiality in major leagues sports negotiations.

Rather, we respectfully ask that you consider the consequences to our cities should the lockout continue.  We ask that you work quickly to find a way to compromise so that we might salvage the upcoming NBA season.

We are proud to call our cities home to NBA franchises.  As basketball fans, we know winning and losing is part of the game.  Rest assured; everyone loses if there is no season.

If we can be of any help to the process of securing the upcoming season, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Mayor Gregory A. Ballard, Indianapolis

Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orlando

Mayor Kevin Johnson, Sacramento

Mayor A. C. Wharton , Jr., Memphis

Mayor Vincent Gray, Washington, DC

Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia

Mayor Phil Gordon, Phoenix

Mayor Annise D. Parker, Houston

Mayor Mike Rawlings, Dallas

Mayor Anthony Foxx, Charlotte

Mayor David Bing, Detroit

Mayor Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City

Mayor Julian Castro, San Antonio

Mayor Michael Hancock, Denver

Marketing Campaign

Throughout the years, real estate marketing has shifted from newspapers, classifieds, and brochures to websites, online classifieds, and videos. Nearly 90% of homebuyers begin their home search online, so there is no question as to where we [Realtors] have shifted our marketing efforts.

The Core Group and Coldwell Banker spend 99% of our time critiquing and improving our online marketing, but we have not completely disowned print. The image to the right is a sample of one of our listings that is being Featured in the weekend real estate section. This section is in place to market home for sale and open houses that are taking place over the weekend.

Be on the lookout for this ad in Friday's (10/14/11) Orlando Sentinel.

 

Is it a good time to sell? - 5 Reasons to sell now!

Your House Will Get More Exposure Now Than the Winter

Housing sales usually level off in the summer and then regain momentum in September and October. The spring buyers’ market has passed. Don’t miss the early fall market. It has consistently outperformed the winter season.

Distressed Properties Will Impact Prices

Distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) on the market will increase this fall and winter. This will put tremendous downward pressure on prices for at least the next 12-18 months. Get your home sold before they become your competition.

Mortgages Will Become More Difficult to Attain

Lending standards are continuing to tighten. There is legislation currently being considered that will make it even harder for buyers to qualify. Less demand will equate to lower prices.

It is the Perfect Time to Move-Up

With prices where they are and interest rates at all time lows, there may have never been a better time to move-up into your dream home. If you move into a more desirable home now, you will be in position to gain larger equity as prices eventually appreciate.

You Get to Move On with Your Life

Probably the most important reason to sell is so you can get on with your life. You are considering selling for a reason. Do not allow a less-than-stellar housing market prevent you from reaching your goals as an individual or as a family. Think about the reasons you are thinking about moving. Are these reasons really important to you? If you have to take less than you were originally hoping to get for your house, your family has a question to ask each other: Is the dollar difference in sales price worth putting off our plans? Only you and your family know the answer to that question.

Rate Watch

This Week; over the weekend it appears there is a deal to avoid a debt default. Congressional leaders and the President came to a compromise as by know everyone is aware of. What isn't clear yet is will the deal make it through the House after members actually see the plan that early this morning hasn't been seen by most members in the House or Senate. The stock market will open better this morning on the news but the bond market isn't likely to buckle much. So far there has been nothing from the rating agencies whether the deal is sufficient to avoid a downgrade of US credit rating.

Once the borrowing limit is increased markets can move back to focusing the economy. Today at 10:00 the July ISM manufacturing index and this afternoon auto and truck sales for July. This is employment week with July employment data on Friday. Expect continued uncertainty and potential market volatility this week as investors sift over the debt ceiling details. Prices of bonds and mortgages will continue to hold a bullish bias given the economic weakness and high unemployment. Whether we can hold the 10 yr at 2.75% area is not clear; it will take a few days for the entire agreed upon plan to be digested.

Orlando Real Estate News

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Orlando loses foreclosure infamy — for now Orlando Sentinel The real cloud hanging over Orlando's real-estate recovery, Sharga added, is the number of houses still destined for foreclosure that haven't received the first default notice yet. Orlando lawyer Justin Clark said his office remains busy with ... See all stories on this topic »

Marriott time-share spin-off will give Orlando a new headquarters Orlando Sentinel ... which operates or franchises 3500 hotels in 71 countries, has acknowledged the difficulty of finding stockholders these days who want to invest in both an asset-light hotel-management company and a real-estate-intensive time-share operation. ... See all stories on this topic »

Two Orlando rock figures pass this week: Rob Grill and Joe Lambusta Orlando Sentinel (blog) He took us through a great period.” Lambusta segued into real estate in the 1990s and had suffered from some health issues, Dolan said. Even then, he remained a valuable caretaker of Orlando's rock history. In 2005, Lambusta talked to the Orlando ... See all stories on this topic »

Study: Bakersfield among top markets for rental home investors Bakersfield Californian 5 in the country for rental home investors, according to two real estate firms that teamed up to gauge the market. The study by HomeVestors of America, a property-investment firm, and Local Market Monitor, a real-estate data firm, looked at current ... See all stories on this topic »

How much activity is enough?

During the listing process, we keep a close eye on web-stats for each and every property. We monitor search results from the major search engines as well as our local MLS. This aspect of the marketing process is more of an art than a science. This is an example of a property we put on the market 2 days prior to this screen shot being taken. This screen shot shows that there were 919 prospective buyers who are actively searching for properties that were triggered when this home hit the market. This means their search criteria fits what this home has to offer.

Furthermore, 1583 emails were sent with this property in the email. This is the biggest number I have ever seen on one of our listings. The truth is, with this property, we received 2 offers within 15 hours of hitting the market, and another 2 within 48 hours. We had over 15 showings in the first 2 days. This is a rare case but don’t forget…Good Deals Never Last!!!

 

Get your offer accepted!

You have finally found the house of your dreams. It is priced right and is receiving a lot of attention from other buyers. You don’t want to miss this opportunity so you are ready to put in an offer with the real estate agent immediately. What can you do to guarantee your offer is the one accepted? Financially, offers can be broken down into three categories:

1.) An All-Cash Offer

Obviously, a cash purchaser is always favored by any seller. In today’s real estate market, an all-cash offer is even more enticing. Last month, one in four real estate transactions were impacted by a low appraisal. An all-cash buyer eliminates the need for the bank appraisal.

2.) A Non-Contingency Offer

If you don’t have the cash reserves for an all-cash purchase, the next best thing would be to make a non-contingency offer. To do this you should be already pre-approved for a mortgage and have your current house already in contract. This gives the seller the confidence that you are already a qualified buyer who will be able to complete the purchase.

3.) A Contingency Offer

Some buyers start the process of looking for a new home before their current home is sold. This could be a big mistake. If you find the home you were hoping for (perfect for your family AND priced right), it will be very difficult to get your offer accepted because you are not actually qualified to buy.

Asking a seller to wait for your home to sell is somewhat unreasonable in today’s environment. One of the reasons you would want the home is because the seller priced the home at a value to sell it NOW. They want to know it is sold when they accept an offer. They normally will not even entertain a contingency offer. 

Bottom Line

Unless you have the ability to purchase with cash, the best thing to do is to be pre-approved for a mortgage and have your current house already in contract before looking for the home of your dreams. That guarantees you will get the home you love at a price that makes sense.

Home Alone Home For Sale – CB Previews

If you are around my age you remember watching the Home Alone series. The actual home was located just outside Chicago and has just been listed for sale. Reminisce with me as we take a tour of the home in the video below. The home is listed for $2.4 Million and is listed by Coldwell Banker. 

Continue Reading.

Two Fla. cities set for dramatic turnaround…http://wp.me/p146tm-fr

Kiplinger.com names two Florida cities – Jacksonville and Orlando – to its list of 11 comeback cities in 2011. According to the website, 2011 will see a “dramatic turnaround – new investment by businesses, growth in the number of jobs and a reblooming of hope” in the noted cities.

The website did not list the cities in any particular order.

Orlando

Kiplinger predicts that Orlando employment will increase by 3 percent this year. It points to an improvement in tourism for the vacation destination, but also points to the growth of a “life science cluster of medical care and research.”

Jacksonville

Kiplinger expects job growth of 2.8 percent this year. It points to increased demand from financial service firms, hotels, health care, restaurants and warehousing.

Other cities in the top 11 for a turnaround include:

• Charlotte, N.C.

• Chattanooga, Tenn.

• Flint, Mich.

• Las Vegas

• Nashville, Tenn.

• Phoenix

• Portland, Ore.

• San Jose, Calif.

© 2011 Florida Realtors®

Rent can NOW BOOST your credit score! http://wp.me/p146tm-cJ

On-time rental payments now help boost credit scores

In the past, only negative rental payment data such as evictions and collections were reported to consumer reporting agencies. Therefore, your on-time rental payments never helped boost your credit scores, unlike credit card, mortgage or car payments that help raise credit scores when paid on time.

But this has changed now that Experian® will be including positive rental data in consumer credit reports. The addition of this data is a tremendous benefit to anyone who rents, especially those who are non-credit-active, cash-based consumers.

Key Benefits to Consumers

• Establish or rebuild your credit — You can now make your continuous on-time rental payments count towards establishing or rebuilding your credit
• Qualify for what you deserve — If you were previously unable to qualify for a lease or credit product due to a thin credit file you will now be able to demonstrate past rental payment history and qualify for what you deserve

How It Works

Experian RentBureau receives updated rental payment data every 24 hours from its national network of property management companies. In order for this data to be included in your credit file, your property management company must contribute its rental history data to Experian RentBureau.

Experian recognizes the value of having a good rental payment history. Please contact your property management company and ask them to contribute their data to Experian RentBureau.

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Foggy Morning

It's a foggy morning. That is the Brighthouse Stadium that can barely be seen.

Justin Core | REALTOR | Coldwell Banker Res RE | The Core Group | 5965 Red Bug Lake Road, Ste 101 | Winter Springs FL 32708 | Cell: (407) 446-5048 | Office: (407) 696-8000 | Fax: (407) 696-7279 | Email: justin.core@floridamoves.com | Web: www.thecoregroupfl.com |

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Investors Prepare: Eye Of The Storm-http://wp.me/p146tm-cA

There have been many headlines recently announcing that foreclosures have declined in recent months. But while the stories are technically correct, they do not accurately reflect the current events.

Foreclosure statistics are affected by the issues with the challenges incorrect documentation which the banks have spent the last several months attempting to correct.

James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac addressed this issue in a recent press release:

“We’ve now seen three straight months with fewer  than 300,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings, following 20 straight  months where the total exceeded 300,000. Unfortunately this is less a sign of a robust  housing recovery and more a sign that lenders have become bogged down in  reviewing procedures, resubmitting paperwork and formulating legal arguments  related to accusations of improper foreclosure processing.”

 

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HUD Homes: $100 down payment - http://wp.me/p146tm-bV

$33,000.00 Address: 218 CANNON WAY CASSELBERRY, FL 32707 SEMINOLE COUNTY Appraisal Date: 10/26/2010 Bed/Bath: 3/1.00 Total Rooms: 6 Square Feet: 828 Year: 1960

In an effort to increase affordability for owner occupants, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is rolling out a $100 downpayment on HUD homes for sale for a limited time. Coldwell Banker is a HUD approved broker and I have shown many HUD homes through the real estate downturn. HUD stands for Housing and Urban Development, which is a government program regulating housing and city development.

$100 Down Payments!

 
Available to owner occupant homebuyers when purchasing a Florida home at full price and using an FHA-insured mortgage. It’s a great time to purchase a Florida HUD Home with FHA financing.

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Nudist Park in Oviedo? http://wp.me/p146tm-bN

I came across this and have to put this out there to see if anyone knows more than I do. I discovered it by accident when searching for the Oviedo Sports Complex on my iPhone maps. This is what came pulled up....

Unfortunately,

 

I will have to start taking a different route to work.

 

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The Cheapest & Most Expensive Homes in Oviedo - http://wp.me/p146tm-bg

The Oviedo Real Estate Market is an interesting place and offers a smorgasbord of home styles, price ranges, and features. Let’s take a look at todays cheapest home and the most expensive home in Oviedo. For the sake of not overexciting you from the start, we will start with the cheapest house first. I am going to do my best to sell these with my descriptions.

 

1278 Taylor St. Oviedo, FL 32765

$39,000 (*est. payment: $181.24/mo)

This home is coming to you all the way from Washington Heights subdivision just off 426 heading out of town towards Geneva. This 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom beauty boasts nearly 830 square feet and is complimented by it’s oversized 1/4 acre lot. It was built in 1970 and played host to many long disco nights. The 1-car carport is any man’s dream and the backyard views are to die for. It is currently rented for $650/month and could be a great investment based on the current asking price.

 

 

 

 

2760 Tuskawilla Rd. Oviedo, FL

Spectacular 3.88 acre gated lake front estate consisting of gracious main house AND seperate 3 bed historic guest house AND

$2.875M (*est payment $16,397 per month with $575,000 down, $2,300,000 mortgage)

studio or caretaker’s quarters AND 8 game sports court. Boat house & dock on Bear Gully Lake. Brilliantly remodeled LAKEFRONT HOME with 6 bedroom suites in 6408 heated sq. ft. The hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings, fireplace and walk-in wine cellar are featured throughout the house. Perfect floor plan has both formal and family living areas, Master suite and 2 guest suites on main level. 2 more suites upstairs with loft & bonus. Fun areas on the lower level, which include home theater, exercise/gym, billiards, walk-in vault, craft room and 6th bedroom suite. Attached 3 car garage, spacious covered patio with summer kitchen & separate screened patio overlooks the pool and lakefront. ~ Restored 1924 GUEST HOUSE has 2542 htd. sq ft, original hardwood & heart pine floors, 3 bed /2 bath, sitting room, formal living /dining, all white kitchen with retro design appliances & delightful sunny family room. Lower level is a finished basement. Read More

 

If you want more information on either one of these don’t hesitate to email me or request information by going to our website.