SI Real Estate Tampa and The Beaches

 Benefits of Homeownership Outweigh the Pros of Renting Making the decision to buy a home can be a daunting one. Many people rule out purchasing a house, as it can feel intimidating and they don’t think they qualify. In reality, many renters have the qualifications and ability to become homeowners. It is a major financial decision but is also extremely rewarding and empowering to be able to own where you live. Here are 4 signs you may want to consider becoming a homeowner.   You love where you live and plan to stay for a while.   Renting is great for people that are new to the area and are unsure if that is where they want to live. If you’ve been living in your city for a few years and plan on settling there, it may be best to consider buying. Also, if you’ve been living there a while and working in the same industry, that will help you qualify for a loan. Mortgage lenders typically require at least 2 years of stable employment in the same industry to approve your loan. ...

  Hundreds of Northerners are Moving to Florida Each Day When Florida comes to mind, many used to think of a vacation spot or a place to eventually retire. This has all changed over time, but especially in 2020. Florida has become one of the hottest places to relocate due to the Coronavirus. According to the Daily Mail, around 950 people move to the Sunshine State each day. According to a Douglas Elliman August report, new contracts for single-family homes and condominiums continued to rise in Pinellas and Hillsborough County — after having doubled in July.   The Coronavirus lockdown resulted in many people reflecting on their lifestyles, especially for people that received work from home orders. Those living in major cities began to realize that working and living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment was just not ideal. Close living quarters in apartment buildings also began to make residents feel uneasy with social distancing becoming the new normal. The desire for outdoor sp...

FOR SALE ~20437 Autumn Fern Avenue~ Absolutely pristine 4 bedroom, 3 bath home located on a picturesque conservation lot in Live Oak. Just built in 2011 and has ample space for your family to grow and stretch in this 2600 sq ft, 2 story, 2 car garage home!!  Just listed for $286,900! Beautiful 42” espresso cabinets and granite counter tops accent the generous gourmet kitchen with stainless appliances. Easy access to your huge screened in lanai to complete your outdoor space. The flex room downstairs is perfect for any office, den, library or even a formal dining room.  Upstairs you’re greeted by a loft space with lots of natural light. Down the hall, you’ll find the Master suite complete with dual vanities, granite counter tops, your walk-in shower and garden tub.  The community of Live Oak offers many amenities and recreational activities to enjoy such as: a clubhouse with fitness center, multiple pools, tennis courts, a covered playground, an...

As spring flourishes around us, the real estate market blooms as well! Are you considering making a move this year? Now is the perfect time to prepare for this home selling season! Keeping in mind a few simple marketing tricks to make your home stand out from the competition! First and foremost, jump on the spring cleaning bandwagon! Sometimes the small details of cleaning the inside of closets and clearing away clutter are forgotten, but these particulars are noticeable to potential home buyers. As articulated by Michele Lerner of Realtor.com, “While everyone has clutter, buyers want to see a fantasy version of your house in which they can envision living”. You can do it! While cleaning, take notice that all of the small repairs that have fallen by the wayside have now become more apparent. Take advantage of this time to move those repairs to the top of your to do list. Replacing doorknobs, updating fixtures, pressure washing the exterior of your home, and adding fresh m...

Welcome to Tampa, Florida! Home of the Buccaneers, the Lightning, the Rays and Florida’s powerhouse of business and economic development. Lifetime locals and newcomers alike, have been the beneficiaries of Tampa’s expansive business, entertainment and real estate advancements. Making the list yet again, Tampa ranks #8 on Forbes’ list of Fastest-Growing American Cities. A major player in Tampa’s growth over the past couple of years has been the ever-expanding Tampa International Airport. Not only has this project enhanced the Tampa traveler experience, but it has also created thousands of local jobs, contributing to Forbes’ 2.43% projected job growth for the Tampa Bay area in 2017. The construction of new terminals and shops combined with the employees to be hired for these new facilities makes for the perfect employment boost! Moving towards downtown Tampa, the Riverwalk District and Riverwalk Tower is ready to impress! This 52-story office and luxury residential building will ...

By and large, we saw a healthy housing market last year – but what should we expect as we embark on a new real estate journey in 2017?  For home buyers, this is your que to strike while the iron is hot! If you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy your new home – your wait is over! Increase your buying power by taking advantage of these lower mortgage rates before we see an increase between 2017 and 2018. As Bill Dallas, CEO at Cloudvirga explains, “We expect GDP [gross domestic product] to increase 2.1% in 2017 and 2.0% in 2018, which in turn would cast an upward pressure on mortgage rates”. Alternatively, sellers are also at an advantage. For those with changing household sizes, moving up or downsizing may be a motivating factor for selling your home. Our current seller’s market, combined with buyers seeking low interest rates, makes for a swift and profitable seller transactions! As Theresa Williams-Barrett, Vice President of consumer lending and loan adminis...

As the buzz of New Year celebrations have settled down, many people are taking a closer look at the pulse of the real estate market for the year ahead. Whether you are considering buying a new home or selling your existing home, 2017 is looking like a promising year for your potential real estate transactions! Kicking off 2017, Realtor.com has released their yearly forecast, predicting a sales volume increase of 4.17% across the southern Florida market. Despite South Florida’s strong population growth and stable job creation, 2016 saw a decrease in home and condo sales – making this year’s sales prediction music to the ears of Realtors and investors! “There is more inventory on the market [in South Florida] than a year ago and prices haven’t fully recovered so it is more of a value play for buyers than other parts of the country” says Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Realtor.com . Additionally, our neighbors in Jacksonville and Orlando, FL are among the top 10 markets e...

Searching for a home to purchase? You’ve probably noticed the increasing inventory of new construction homes available. Builders are developing new communities all over Florida, especially in the greater Tampa Bay area. If you’re ready to start exploring the option of purchasing a model or builder home, don’t go it alone! There are countless advantages of having an agent with connections to builders and the community, along with new construction experience, by your side for a new home purchase… Always use a Realtor ® As you admire the freshly built model home, you may be surprised to learn that the “new home sales consultant” greeting you might not actually be a Realtor. Builders employ sales agents and staff to sell their homes, but these individuals are not necessarily required to have a real estate license. While not hiring a Realtor may seem like a thrifty choice, it is always in your best interest to have representation in negotiating your purchase, sel...

Flipping through the television channels and social media, you may have noticed that many people are shifting towards downsizing their living space. Shows like  Tiny House, Big Living  and  Tiny House Nation  document the trending transition to tiny homes. So why are so many Americans jumping on the tiny home bandwagon? According to  TheTinyLife .com , the average home is 2600 square feet – compared to the minimal square footage for tiny homes, averaging between 100 – 400 square feet! Those joining the Tiny House Movement are doing so to protect the environment, live frugally and have the freedom to travel. With their petite structure, m any tiny house homeowners have found financial freedom that would have been difficult to achieve had they opted for a mortgage on a traditional home. The savings from high property taxes, lower maintenance costs and less major repairs are illustrations of many sources of household savings through  Tiny Homeown...

Traveling back to the 1960s, homeowners were just beginning to enjoy the luxury of having a television in the home.  The families of the 1990s experienced the convenience of owning their very own computer. Fast forward to 2016, and not only has technology advanced in the way of entertainment, but it has become a part of our everyday lifestyle.  For years, technology has filled our homes – now our homes have become an integral part of new age technology. While the definition of a  smart home   is debatable, most consider a smart home a house that has remotely controlled systems including temperature, lighting and electronic devices. Once considered a luxury for the wealthy, smart homes have become a mainstream component of homeownership. Combining security with convenience, smart homes offer families enhanced peace of mind. Beyond the ability to remotely access security footage from your smart phone or tablet, some smart homes have the unique capabilit...

It’s time to take the next step and buy your first home. Where to begin, you ask? By and large we find ourselves scouring the internet for real estate listings and then driving by potential homes only to find that it’s been sold, or doesn’t live up to those beautiful online photos. Here’s the good news! Before getting too wrapped up in the home searching process, there are a few steps you should take to save yourself time, money and lots of disappointment. First and foremost: Prepare Your Credit for Mortgage Approval .  Now that you’ve decided to turn those rent payments into mortgage payments, the natural tendency may be to start looking for your dream home. But taking a step back to analyze your finances will be of absolute benefit to you when it comes to the mortgage approval part of the process!  The preliminary home search stage is the perfect time to check your credit score and the contents of your report.   If needed, you may dispute any erro...

It’s no secret that spring is the busiest time for home buying and selling. Homeowners planning to put their homes on the market should start preparing NOW!  Following these few easy tips can make for a much smoother selling experience. If you are a prospective home seller, here are a few guidelines to help you get ready for the Spring Market: Minimize Clutter Don’t you love walking into a newly furnished model home? The open, clear, fresh new home is one you can picture yourself living in instantly.  What you don’t see in this model home is a stack of magazines on the table, perhaps a stack of mail or even children’s artwork casually hanging on the refrigerator. While everyone has clutter, buyers want to see the model home version of your home for sale. A home they can envision living in.  Putting away single framed family photos, clearing off shelves and counters can also help reduce clutter instantly.   Start Packing! As you begin to clear...

All year long we have been watching the real estate market heat up in Florida. There are many reasons why we are seeing a different resurgence this year!   A few of the key catalysts are: the Florida Legislature, interest rates and PMI insurance reductions. Each of these played a high valued role in the 2015 housing market. Combining all three, we can see housing is more affordable and there are a lot more people looking for housing!   Florida Governor Rick Scott is very enthusiastic about the housing market citing this past month as another remarkable one for the state. He is particularly proud of his tax cuts, saying “our work to cut taxes and create a business friendly environment is creating jobs and attracting more families to Florida because there are so many opportunities for success.” The team at SI Real Estate could not agree more. We have been helping families relocate to the Tampa area all year long, and know many more families are relocating this year,...

When working diligently, it is often disheartening for a Realtor to hear from clients, “I think I’m just going to rent for a while longer.” The hard work and countless miles traveled over the last month seem wasted, but is this really a waste? It is most definitely not. You never know what that relationship could develop into. Some of the most successful real estate agents are those with strong interpersonal communication and networking skills. Those who provide an unsurpassed level of quality service for clients do not go unrecognized. Success in this industry is highly dependent on one’s ability to stay in contact with clients, even long after a phone call, showing, or transaction. In providing premium customer service for your clients, regardless of their current needs, you are much more likely to be referred to a friend, family member, or work associate in the future.  And after all, word-of-mouth marketing is still perhaps the most effective form of advertisement. ...

After a double digit increase in home prices and sales occurred in 2013, this positive trend in the real estate market will continue throughout 2014 as well. As greater Tampa Real Estate professionals, SI Real Estate team is confident that the recovery of the housing market, job growth, and lower unemployment rate will continue to make housing more affordable. Here in the greater Tampa Bay area, there will be more homes available than there have been in several years. Homebuilders have regained enormous trust in the housing market and have started building more new homes than we have seen in many years!   They cannot build homes fast enough. This will help to increase real estate inventory and satisfy the high customer demand for both new and resale properties. In addition, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist as the National Association of Realtors , “2013 has marked the second straight year of a very respectable recovery with a 20% cumulative increase in exi...

New home sales are an integral segment of the continual stabilization of the real estate industry, especially in recent years, and the relationships between home builders and Realtors are allowing for the increased volume of sales. E.J. Atchner, Senior Vice President of Bank of America, notes that ‘many builders, regardless of their size, are taking a much more collaborative view of partnering with Realtors than in the past.’ An incredible 66% of all new homes sold in 2013 were original prospects of Realtors that were introduced to home builders, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2013 Buyer Profile Survey, and 88% of potential homebuyers said they will contact a Realtor to assist them through each step of the buying process. The regional marketplace expertise possessed by many Realtors provides clients with an added sense of comfort and security through the memorable, milestone purchase in becoming a homeowner. Many clients of Realtors are eager, willing, and ...

Home buyers often times make mistakes that can be avoided by working with a licensed REALTOR®. It is an exciting process to search for and find that “perfect home”, but home buyers who take on the task by themselves quickly find that they would have been better off asking for the help of a skilled real estate professional right from the beginning. Finding a home for sale that a buyer likes is not the challenge, but finding a home that the buyer can actually afford, that is priced properly in today’s market so that the deal does not fall through at the time of the appraisal, and that is a good investment takes far more knowledge than a person without a real estate license possesses. Hire a professional. Interview your potential agent. The article Most Common Mistakes Home Buyers Make posted by REALTOR.com® addresses this topic. “By working with an agent from the get-go, you will only see properties that are within your budget and located in the neighborhoods that best match your crit...

The housing inventory is moving quickly in the Tampa Bay area, a definite change from previous months. Buyers who are looking for rock bottom prices are finding their search to be more difficult than originally expected. Multiple offers, fewer days on the market, and a rise in home sale prices are all evidence of this new market shift in the Tampa Bay area real estate market. For example, three months ago the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service reported over 600 bank-owned properties in Tampa Bay. This number has now been reduced to fewer than 370, as the inventory continues to be quickly absorbed. In 2008 we were looking at a vastly different real estate inventory with a much higher number of bank-owned and short sale homes in Tampa, giving buyers a wide selection to choose from. In our current condition, buyers who are looking for a “best buy” need to be ready to act fast. With multiple offers being placed on low-priced real estate, sellers are now receiving offers at even ...