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Selling a Tampa Home and Buying Another?

So you are thinking of selling your home but want to ensure that you will have somewhere to move to afterwards? Not too long ago, you could sell your old Tampa home and buy the new one on the same day. Given that the Tampa real estate market has changed from that time three years ago, here are some things to keep in mind as you negotiate the sale of one house with the purchase of another.

Time it right
Fall and spring are the best times for homes to move and you want to consider the season of the year when buying and selling. Read more

June is National Homeownership Month

June is National Homeownership month. This year’s theme “Back to Basics” – is designed to underscore the importance of having strong, common-sense fundamentals as a way to maintain a sustainable housing market. Many of those basics were ignored in the lead-up to the housing bubble. HUD’s Federal Housing Administration is at the center of the Administration’s efforts to help qualified homeowners refinance into safer, more affordable mortgage products. Over 200,000 families are already using FHA to keep their homes.

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Tampa Museum of Art To Host Pride and Passion Event

The Tampa Museum of Art will host the third annual Pride & Passion event in Tampa on Friday, May 30, 2008 from 8 p.m. to midnight at the museum’s interim location at 2306 N. Howard Avenue in Tampa. The event coincides with the kick-off of national Gay Pride Month and is designed to engage current and new museum members, along with broader segments of the community. Proceeds from the event will support the museum’s exhibitions and educational programs.

The museum will showcase several special exhibitions during Pride & Passion 2008, including exclusive one-night showings of Robert Mapplethorpe prints, and Equilibrium, as well as Small Expressions.  Mapplethorpe was an American photographer noted for his black-and-white flower studies, nudes, and portraits of artists and celebrities. Equilibrium is an exhibition organized especially for the event by Jen Saavedra and will feature artwork that addresses an array of social issues by internationally exhibited GLBT artists, including Santiago Echeverry and Kurt Piazza. Additionally, glass sculpture by nationally renowned artist Duncan McClellan will be on display, along with one of his works that will be offered as a door prize during the event.  Small Expressions, on view through July 6, is an annual, international juried exhibition sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America, that features high quality, contemporary fiber art in small scale.

Admission to Pride & Passion 2008 is $50 per person. Complimentary heavy hors d’oeuvres, desserts and beverages, as well as live music by Business Casual, will be featured throughout the evening. The event decor is being designed by conceptBAIT, inc., of St. Petersburg. Pride & Passion 2008 sponsors include Bacardi, Bacardi Mojito, Bern’s Steak House, Bright House Networks, conceptBAIT, J.J. Taylor Distributing, Logo, SideBern’s, Starbucks and Watermark. Ticket sales are limited to the first 300 sold. Reservations can be made with a credit card by calling (813) 259-1718.

Florida Museum of Photographic Arts Presents Photocamp

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts is offering Photocamp.  Help your children broaden their horizons by enrolling them in Photocamp. They offer something for every budding photographer! Giving children a strong base within the arts teaches practical skills, self-discipline, confidence, creativity, critical thinking, and provides an outlet for artistic expression. They’ll be having so much fun they won’t even notice all of the other positive effects. Plus, you’ll absolutely adore the “masterpieces” they’ll bring home to you from camp.

Photocamp will be offered from Monday, June 9 to Friday, June 13. Each camp day is from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.   Drop off should be between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., with pick up between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.  Each child should bring a non-perishable lunch (they don’t have a big enough refrigerator) and a snack.  Water and Juice will be provided.

Photocamp cost members of FMOPA $125.00 for the whole week and non-members $185.00 for the whole week.  Photocamp is perfect for children ages 7 to 15 year olds.

The Photocamp Schedule is as follows:

• June 9 – Getting to know each other and photography.  Make journals. Learn photography basics. Assign homework.
• June 10 – Demonstration of the FMoPA room-sized camera obscura.  Build pinhole cameras.  Make and develop images.
• June 11th –Look at different artists work and discuss new assignment.  Make a photo-narrative.
• June 12 – Collect homework.  Critique narratives.  Learn about artists work with toy cameras.  Take pictures with toy cameras.
• June 13 – Critique toy camera images.  Critique homework.  Finish journals. Pizza Party!

Get more details by calling FMOPA at (813) 221-2222.

Tampa Foreclosure Scams Beware

Be careful homeowners, do not be one of the victims in Florida, specifically Tampa foreclosure scams.

Foreclosure Scams Lurking In Your Neighborhood

Delinquent homeowners looking to break free from default notices are getting tricked by brokers promising to save them from foreclosure, only to make off with thousands in fees or what home equity is left.

Take rent-to-buy scams. In cases like these, a fraudulent rescue company convinces a homeowner to sign over the title while building equity as a renter. The homeowner avoids foreclosure but risks being evicted by the very firm that promised to save his home.

The situation is bad enough in Florida, one of the nation’s foreclosure capitals, that State Attorney General Bill McCollum has filed suit against National Foreclosure Management, a mediation company, for allegedly defrauding troubled homeowners; fraudulent rescue companies in Illinois have been increasingly penalized, while in Massachusetts the for-profit practice of foreclosure rescue transactions has been banned.

With rising foreclosures threatening homeowners, rescue brokers prey on subprime or adjustable rate borrowers because many facing foreclosure are overextended and desperately looking for a way out of their mortgages.

Bad-News Bailouts

Low-level schemes involve those who pose as mediation specialists or counselors promising to rescue homes from foreclosure. Naturally, they work for a fee. While they might not charge an excessive amount of money, between $300 and $6,670, according to the Illinois state’s attorney’s office, the Federal Trade Commission says that once homeowners pay that first check, these so-called specialists disappear.

It hurts to lose a few hundred dollars, or even a thousand, but the wilier schemes involve surrendering the title.

The most basic involves pushing on homeowners’ phony documents that appear to be a new mortgage application. These are known as rescue loans which, if correctly represented, give a homeowner the cash to stave off a foreclosure. Instead, these false documents turn over the title.

A more sophisticated version of this scam involves a rent-to-buy provision. Here, a mediator matches a distressed homeowner with a management company that takes over the property while giving the homeowner the ability to become a long-term renter, with his rent paying down the mortgage.

The premise here is that the management company has great credit and can refinance at a better rate, which they will do for a fee. This arrangement is attractive to a delinquent homeowner because the months-long foreclosure process is a black mark on a credit report.

Florida-Friendly Landscaping Planted At Fire Stations

Community leaders, partners and volunteers joined Mayor Pam Iorio at Fire Station 14 to announce a new Florida-friendly landscape initiative for all City of Tampa fire stations. In the future, through public/private partnerships, all Tampa Fire Rescue Stations will receive new Florida-friendly landscaping.

Florida-friendly landscaping consists of plants that are tolerant of the climate, thrive in the varied weather conditions and do not require extensive supplemental irrigation. This new green initiative for Tampa fire stations helps beautify neighborhoods and is environmentally responsible. Fire Station 14, located at 1325 South Church Avenue, was the first station to receive the new landscaping and was designated a “Florida Friendly Landscape” today by the University of Florida, Hillsborough County Extension office.

The initiative will be possible only with the help of additional public/private partnerships. Fire Station 14′s partners include: Janet Kovach of J.D. Kovach & Associates, Inc. who coordinated contributions and served as liaison to the City for project; Kim’s Nursery, Inc. and Mother’s Organics, Inc. provided the plants; Living Soil Solutions provided compost; and Genesis Group donated the irrigation system. Mother’s Organics, Inc. also provided mulch for the project. Volunteers from the Mayor’s Beautification Program and Mayor’s Youth Corp planted the new landscaping.

The total project cost was $3,575, a fraction of the $20,000 estimate the City had received for the irrigation alone.

Florida Existing Home Sales Improve from Previous Month

The existing Florida home and condo sales are in for the month of April 2008 statistics.  Florida Realtors statewide reported an upswing in existing home and condominium sales from March to April 2008, according to the latest housing statistics released by the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR). A total of 11,200 existing single-family homes changed hands in April, a 20 percent increase over the previous month when 9,330 homes sold. Existing condo sales statewide rose 21.6 percent, with 3,900 units sold in April compared with 3,207 condos in March.

The median price for existing condos increased slightly as well during the one-month period. The median price of an existing condo in April was $179,200, up 1.6 percent from March’s figure of $176,300.

In the latest National Association of Realtors (NAR) housing outlook, Chief Economist Lawrence Yun predicts that home sales and prices throughout most of the nation will improve in the second half of the year, especially if access to mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac increases.

In the year-to-year comparison, a total of 11,200 existing homes sold statewide last month while 12,358 homes sold in April 2007 for a decrease of 9 percent, according to FAR. Florida’s median sales price for existing homes last month was $198,900; a year ago, it was $239,000 for a 17 percent decrease. But, looking back to April 2003, the statewide median sales price for single-family homes has increased about 30.9 percent over the five-year-period, according to FAR records – at that time, the statewide existing-home median price was $151,900. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.

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Tampa’s Affordable Housing Program Review

Tampa’s State Funded Affordable Housing Program Receives Top Score

Wow! The City of Tampa received a score of 100%, the highest score possible, during the annual review of the City’s State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) program. Seltzer Management Group Inc., the State designated monitoring firm, recently completed the annual SHIP program management review and physical inspection of the City’s SHIP program. The three areas of the City’s SHIP program that were reviewed included the examination of records, administrative procedures, and physical inspection of the Tampa homes.

For the three year period that was reviewed the City received over $7.7 million in SHIP funding. The SHIP program is a State funded housing initiative that allows the City to increase the number of affordable housing units available in Tampa.

What exactly is State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP)?

The State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program provides funds are collected from local documentary stamp revenues. Total actual disbursements are dependent upon the amount of documentary stamp collections. Funds are used as incentives to produce and/or preserve affordable home ownership and multifamily rental housing. Jurisdictions must establish a Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP) that provides strategies to meet the affordable housing needs of the community.

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Understanding Capital Gains in Real Estate

When you sell a stock, you owe taxes on your gain — the difference between what you paid for the stock and what you sold it for. The same holds true when selling a home (or a second home), but there are some special considerations.

How to Calculate Gain
In real estate, capital gains are based not on what you paid for the home, but on its adjusted cost basis. To calculate, follow these steps:

1. Purchase price: _______________________

The purchase price of the home is the sale price, not the amount of money you actually contributed at closing.

2. Total adjustments: _______________________

To calculate this, add the following:

• Cost of the purchase — including transfer fees, attorney fees, and inspections, but not points you paid on your mortgage.
• Cost of sale — including inspections, attorney fees, real estate commission, and money you spent to fix up your home just prior to sale.
• Cost of improvements — including room additions, deck, etc. Note here that improvements do not include repairing or replacing something already there, such as putting on a new roof or buying a new furnace.

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What is RESPA?

As the leading advocate for housing issues, the National Association of REALTORS® supports a market-based approach to reform of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to encourage fair competition; protect consumer choice; and provide transparency, or full disclosure, of costs and services in the mortgage transaction.

RESPA is a consumer protection law that ensures that home buyers and sellers know about all settlement costs in a real estate transaction. The law also prohibits kickbacks in an effort to prevent fees that drive up the costs of the transaction.

In light of the current housing and credit problems facing our economy, the time is right to improve consumer disclosures under RESPA.

In March 2008, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposed rule that includes provisions to modify the Good Faith Estimate and the HUD-1 settlement statement.

NAR will be working with industry partners and REALTORS® to ensure that the final rule provides simple and clear disclosure and explains the essential elements of the real estate transaction adequately and in a way that is easy to understand.

Modifications should empower consumers by providing loan information in a consumer-friendly format, helping them shop for the mortgage that best fits their needs.

This is not the time for comprehensive reform that would fundamentally change the settlement service industry resulting in disruptive and damaging implementation time, costs and confusion.

Any final rule must focus tightly on disclosures and avoid a comprehensive, confusing, and costly reordering of the settlement process.

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