Cape Coral Real Estate : January 2007

Here's another great opportunity to purchase a home in Cape Coral, Florida.

This house was built in 2003 & has city water & sewer in already. Located in very desirable SW Cape Coral & priced to sell.

Here's the listing details:

	Prop Type	Residential	Prop Subtype(s)	Single Family
	GEO Area	CC21 - cape c	Subdivision	Cape Coral
	Beds	3	Living Area	1624 Seller
	Baths(FH)	2 (2 0)	Price/Sq Ft	134.54
	Waterfront	No
	Year Built	2003	Lot Sq Ft (approx)	10629 ((Tax Data))
	PID	104523C1033240070	Lot Acres (approx)	0.244

With the market shift over the last year we are seeing many first time homebuyers buying homes. This is great for our real estate market. When first time homebuyers are able afford homes I'm happy. The past 2-3 years most could not afford a house here, unless they shared expenses with someone.

Things change. We have experienced at least a 20% decrease in home prices over the last year.

Honestly, I feel like we have about 10% to go down.

"Oh, no, should I wait to buy?"

my answer to that is "NO".

Why?

"Because right now at the present time you can heavily negotiate with sellers. Right now you may even walk away buying a house 20% under current market value. Then even if the market goes down another 10% you are still ahead 10%. Not to mention that you were able to homestead to save on property taxes, take the interest deduction from your mortgage & now have the added security of owning your own home."

Sound good? But if your credit isn't in good shape you'd better wait a little while. The next best thing, in my opinion, is engaging in a Lease Option or Lease to Purchase or often times called a rent to own.

How do they work? It's pretty easy, we go view the properties that are available for a lease option term. Usually I'll have you pick out 2 or 3 that you are most interested in & we'll start putting in offers. Just because the seller is asking for $X deposit, $Y monthly payment & $Z price doesn't mean they won't take less. So we work out the best arrangment we can.

Once we have an offer accepted you can typically move in anytime after you deposit your oringinal non-refundable deposit. Why is this $$ non-refundable? One, the seller is taking a risk having a buyer/tenant in their home & should be allowed to keep that money should you change your mind & second, that money is used towards the purchase price of the home when you do go ahead & buy it.

Ok, so now you are in the home making payments. Our mortgage guy will begin working with you to help get your credit back in order. Our goal is to have you ready to buy this house within the year or 2 - whatever your lease term is.

Also, typically about $100-200/month is credited to the purchase price too. Sometimes that money may be needed to help fix up your credit, when its not needed it will also sit in escrow & be used towards the purchase price of the house.

Let's recap why a lease option could be a great opportunity for you:

1) Your credit is less than perfect

2) You want to negotiate & lock-in a great price on a house to buy in a year or 2

3) You don't want to throw money away on rent for any longer because you eventually want to be a proud home owner

4) You know that the inventory is pretty large & that you can pretty much pick/choose the type of house & location you want (why wait for the market to change?)

There are other financial & personal reasons of course & we can discuss those more in detail on a case by case basis.

There are many people offering these but please make sure you hire a competant Realtor to assist you with this. You don't want to sign something that is not in your best interest. It doesn't cost anything to hire me, or someone on my team to assist you with the search, negotiations & eventual close.

I have been receiving many inquiries as to the local vacant land value here in Cape Coral, Florida.

Here are the 3 top questions I've received & my responses below as well.

1Q.  Why is my taxable value so high in comparison to current market value?

2Q.  When will the market go back up?

3Q.  Should I sell or should I wait?

1A.  The values for the taxes are for 2005. In 2005 many off water lots sold up to $100,000. We pay taxes in arrears so the bill you have now is for 2005 & the one you received in 2005 was for 2004. The one you'll get at the end of this year will be for 2006 values.

2A.  We had many speculative investors here buying up the lots which drove them up to these unsustainable highs. Now the market has adjusted downward more in line with where the true values should/would have been had that have not happened. Just in 2002-2003 for example these same vacant lots were selling for $5-15,000.  For about 20 years prior to that they were only $1000-2,000/each.  I feel like for the next few years we will see the prices creep back up possibly 3-5% a year. Prices are still fluctuating down a bit but I think we're getting pretty close to stabilizing.

3A.  Depending on your situation, it may make sense to sell or hold. I know this may not answer your specific question but that's it, it's specific to you.