Tampa real estate statistics – plumbing issues during home inspections and more – The Duncan Duo Radio Show
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The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show. Now, your host: Andrew Duncan.
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Andrew Duncan: Happy Sunday, Tampa Bay. We’re back with you for another week, talking about the local real estate market, like we are every Sunday at 10:00am. Excited to have Richard Vazquez from Artisan Insurance, Ryan Pelky from Tampa Bay Plumbers and Robert Johnson from my real estate team here with us today to give us some updates on the local real estate market as well as to help you answer your questions. Whether you have questions about home-owner’s insurance, plumbing needs, real estate buying, selling, investing, short sales, foreclosures – whatever your questions, if they are real estate related, we’d love the opportunity to answer your questions live on air today: 813-990-9352 in Hillsborough, 727-461-9352 in Pinellas are our calling numbers and then toll-free 1-800-969-9352. Again: in Hillsborough 990-9352 and in Pinellas 461-9352.
All of our phone numbers end in ‘9352’ or ‘WFLA’ and today we are again talking with Ryan Pelky from Tampa Bay Plumbers, Richard Vazquez from Artisan Insurance and Robert Johnson from my real estate team. When we aren’t on air, you can check us out on Facebook or YouTube by searching for The Duncan Duo and, as you’re listening today, if you’re at home and not close to a phone, then we’d rather send in your question electronically. You can go to our Facebook fan page, which is facebook.com/theduncanduoshow and post your question on there instead of calling us and we’ll get to those questions throughout the show today, as well.
So I want to first start off by talking about the local real estate statistics. It’s interesting that we continue to monitor these and we talk about them every single month on the show but it’s a seller’s market. It’s time to say goodbye to the buyer’s market. The buyers’ market is no longer here, in Tampa, at least according to the statistics. We’re now three and a half months of inventory for available homes in Tampa Bay. The average sale price is continuing to climb throughout the year. Average sale price now in Greater Tampa area is 175,813, average home selling in 85 days for 96 percent of the asking price. Not to brag or anything but our team’s performance is a little better than that. We’re getting a little higher clip and sell them a little more quickly in terms of…and also the list is sub-ratio but, nonetheless, just looking at the market as a whole a lot of stabilization out there, homes selling more quickly, not as much inventory on the market and it really has turned into the favor of the buyer – far more often than we’ve seen in quite a while. We’re seeing bidding wars, we’re seeing home selling quickly, foreclosing the asking price and buyers and sellers not being prepared for the shift in the market in Tampa. And again, there are a lot of things that can contribute to that: there’s a lot of chance of it shifting back the other way but the last four months we’ve seen some really strong numbers: above 2,000 home sales every month since May.
It’s a trend we hope to see continuing but as you look at the price chart, you’ll also see what you’d seen in most real estate markets in big cities around the country and that’s that as you climb the price chart, there’s more and more inventory. For example, number of months supplied homes at a million and over is 13.7. I can remember when that was like 40 months. A couple of years ago, a million dollar homes were literally over 40 months in inventory so that’s a great statistic. I mean, really, a year of inventory isn’t that completely unhealthy – it’s really not that bad. Nonetheless, if you’re listening today and you want to have questions about the statistics in the market or you have questions about plumbing, we’ve got our plumber online with us today, Ryan Pelky from Tampa Bay Plumbers and Richard Vazquez from Artisan Insurance. Give us a call: 990-9352 in Hillsborough and 461-9352 in Pinellas and toll-free 1-800-969-9352.
We did have a call: Mike called in and wanted to know if there’s a formula for figuring out rent price as a landlord. Really, there’s not an easy formula. It depends on the comps. A lot of times you want to look at comparable rentals to see what are rentals similar to that one we’re renting for, so it’s not an effective math formula to say: “OK, it’s priced at this much and it should be rented for this much”, because it’s just like with real estate: when you’re buying and selling, it’s really a matter of what the value is and what someone will pay for it. That’s what you have to have done. You have to have an analysis done to determine what it can rent for, similar to what you can find out if it can sell for. So there’s not a specific easy, math way to determine what a home should rent for based on its’ price. There are cap-rates and there’s sometimes ways you can do it with commercial property but with retail real estate, you’re really looking to what else in the neighborhood and comparable of this is renting for.
I want to first talk to Richard and Ryan – we’d talked about this in the past and I thought it was a good opportunity to have you both on the show because of how often, in the real estate business, we turn into dealing with insurance and plumbing scenarios. One of the first things I want to talk about was how a plumbing issue can turn into a nightmare for a real estate sale and for a home-owner’s insurance. Richard, you mentioned, now Citizen’s doing the thirty years instead of the fifty for the four-points. A lot of the plumbing issues can blow someone’s home sale up.
Richard Vazquez: Well, and Citizen’s has been trying for a long time to slow down the number of policies that they were bringing in because they do not want to be the number one insurer in the State of Florida which they kind of turned out to be. So, in the past, they used to only require inspections if the house was fifty years old or older and they’ve cropped that number up and now they’re requiring four-point inspections for any house that’s thirty years old and older. And what we’re seeing is houses with electrical issues, with plumbing issues, with roof issues and they’re trying to weed them out to tell these people: “Hey, you will either have to have these things fixed or we’re not going to insure you.” And we have seen some plumbing issues where we’ve to come back and go: “Listen, you’re either going to have this repaired done or you’re going to have to go with a very basic, barebones type of policy until you can afford to have this done. So that’s what we’re running into. It’s either: “Yes, we’re going to insure you” or “No, we’re not going to insure you, based on the plumbing and based on what kind condition”
Andrew Duncan: So, Ryan, speaking on that when it comes to the plumbing issues, what are some of the most common things people end up running into in some of these inspections? Or that they find out the causes of problem?
Ryan Pelky: Well, I think what we’re looking for most often is active leaks, problems that could cause property damage, things like that. Poly-butylene pipes – we touched on that but I was wondering who are doing these inspections? Is it just a regular home inspector or do you actually have to have a plumber come out and inspect it, an electrician?
Richard Vazquez: Well, no, it’s a home inspector because it’s not just the plumbing inspection. They want to know the roof, the electrical, the AC and there’s a number of things that they want to know so licensed home inspectors for the most part are doing them.
Andrew Duncan: Sometimes, however, you’ll see the person get really specific and hire more specific inspections. It depends on home, you know. It’s really going to depend on the scenario.
Richard Vazquez: Yes, I have seen them done by general contractors but more often than not it’s usually a licensed home inspector. There are great licensed home inspectors out there and I’ve seen great inspections which have really brought out a lot of important information and then, there are always the questionable ones where you look at it and go: “I hope this guy really knows what he’s talking about here.”
Ryan Pelky: So where are we seeing the deal-breakers at? Is it just the poly-butylene piping or is it the galvanized and the copper that’s causing the insurance companies having take them?
Richard Vazquez: Well, the two main things are: poly-butylene pipes – that’s a killer in the insurance world; nobody wants to insurance a house with poly-butylene pipes and then not so much the copper and galvanized because there’s usually a mix. The inspections where it’s usually saying: mix of galvanized and PVC. I don’t know a lot of houses – at least I haven’t seen any out there – that are strictly galvanized or strictly copper. But when it comes to that, they’re looking for active problems: active leaks, active signs of wear. There’s a phrase that a lot of inspectors like to use that it’s ‘at the end of its’ useful life’ and if the insurance company see that then it’s time to take action.
Andrew Duncan: And on the same token, even outside of just the insurance you actually getting the deal done, if you find that you have one of those problems after the fact, which why I think when it comes to selling a home, being more proactive instead of reactive one of the challenges you have is, let’s say, for example, you have the scenario happen well before the four-point gets done and they find out that there’s a plumbing issue, the buyer, naturally, is going to attempt to leverage that into a greater cost than if the home-owner would have known about it and taken care of it upfront. If they went to tampabayplumbing.net and they used the cool little tool to find out what problem went wrong, which is really cool. If you have ever a plumbing problem, I love the tool. It’s really unique for the industry. We talked about this. I wish I could find like an easy button for real estate, you know: you have a real estate problem, you just hit the ‘easy button’ and everything’s fixed. But there are a lot of challenges but now he’s got the cool button on his website where you can go on there and you can, literally, troubleshoot your problem and it can self-help you. But on that same token, though, the buyers are going to leverage that in more money and the more expensive repair. But you have to do it upfront.
Ryan Pelky: Thanks!
Richard Vazquez: Makes sense, absolutely.
Andrew Duncan: And so it’s why I’m constantly telling people: “Be proactive about it. If you think there’s a chance you’ve got a plumbing problem, you probably do, if you’re telling me that at the table when we’re talking about listing the home.
Ryan Pelky: How about like…with galvanized piping, for instance, the water quality and the water pressure is obviously diminished a lot of the times.
Andrew Duncan: Right.
Ryan Pelky: So how, from a seller’s perspective or if you’re trying to sell a house, how much does this affect it when you’re doing a walk-through and they see rusty [illegible] water?
Andrew Duncan: You know, I would say to the majority of home buyers, it probably doesn’t have a lot of impact. To someone who’s dealt with that repair expense before, they’re probably going to look for it and they’ll going to find the value of it. For example, we’ve had home-owners and ‘rehabbers’ that we were working with who have gone through and done the replacement of all that and while they may not get a dollar for dollar on that return, it’s going to prevent a sale from falling apart. It’s going to prevent an issue from happening later on and it’s going to give them a peace of mind and the buyer feels better about it, knowing that. It’s one of those scenarios where it’s hard to justify that it’s going to get a dollar for dollar but it helps.
Ryan Pelky: OK. So, if you have a house and the house is poly and you’re thinking about selling it, you definitely need the repair.
Andrew Duncan: Yes, definitely, with poly. With galvanized err…
Ryan Pelky: [illegible]
Richard Vazquez: And one of the things that we talked about is, from an insurance perspective, when it comes to plumbing there’s very few small claims when it comes to plumbing. Because usually what happens with the plumbing claim is that you come home from that weekend at Disneyworld and you walk up to your house and there’s water coming underneath the front door of your house and you say: “Well, that’s what I have insurance for.” But it doesn’t just ruin the drywall and the hardwood flooring, it ruins your furniture, it ruins your electronics. I mean, you’ve got a really big mess on your hands if you have to file a plumbing claim.
Andrew Duncan: So I’m going to take a call from Mike. He’s been waiting patiently on the toll-free line: Mike in Tampa, you have a question about replacing xx wiring whether it’s essential or not?
Mike in Tampa: I’ve got a couple of different questions. That was one of the two. I’ve got a home, it was built in the twenties and the renters lived there for close to 20-some years right now and if they continue to rent from me, but it’s kind of knob and tube wiring. I see a lot of the homes in some areas of Tampa have knob and tube wiring. Is it essential that you get that replaced as soon as possible?
Andrew Duncan: Pretty much, yes.
Richard Vazquez: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Duncan: Your insurance, if you hit the point where you’re going to have a four-point, they’re going to flag that and you’re not going to be able to get a home-owner’s insurance. What was your other…So, yeah, and I mean it’s a safety issue, fire hazards, so…
Ryan Pelky: Fire hazard.
Richard Vazquez: Yeah, I think so
Andrew Duncan: So, yes, it is. And from an insurer’s perspective you’re going to have hard time keeping that. What was your other question, Mike?
Mike in Tampa: That same property, it’s next door to a small convenience store that doesn’t have a lot of parking spaces that’s right adjacent to it and, down the road, I’d like to consider possibly make that some type of commercial property where I could sell it to a convenience store and they could bulldoze it and make a parking lot. How difficult is it to get something like that zoned? How expensive is it? How long does it take? Is it usually successful or does it take a long time?
Andrew Duncan: Mike, I’m going to answer that question after our break. We’re going to run into a commercial break. I’ll put you on hold and we’ll continue the conversation after a quick break here, on the Duncan Duo Show.
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Andrew Duncan: We’re back here on the Duncan Duo Show, here, on 970WFLA, talking to Ryan Pelky from Tampa Bay Plumbers and Richard Vazquez from Artisan Insurance and we’ve got Mike who’s been waiting patiently here. Mike, to continue to answer the questions: so you’re curious how to acquire some of the land from the business for your own home or do you want to sell some of your land to that business?
Mike from Tampa: Well, I’ve already bought the property and it’s near…I bought it for very cheap but it needs a lot of work, a lot more work that I want to put into it. So down the road maybe three, four five years from now, I’d like to consider selling the property to the adjacent convenience store because I know they would like to have it for an extended parking lot.
Andrew Duncan: OK.
Mike from Tampa: Is it a difficult part just to get that re-zoned? Is it expensive part to get it re-zoned?
Andrew Duncan: So, it’s right next to the convenience property?
Mike from Tampa: Yes, right next door.
Andrew Duncan: I wouldn’t say that it’s impossible, but I wouldn’t say that it’s easy. For example, you’re going to have to go through the permitting process, you’re going to have hire a surveyor, you’re going to have to make sure that the easements are fair, you are probably going to need to get a variance. The one of the things that’s could blow it up is if their neighbors can contest or push or complain about it. That’s one of the challenges that usually blows up a scenario like that that I’ve heard about. As far as that goes though, a lot of times you put the onus on the purchaser of your property. In other words, there may not be much you have to do. You can sell the home completely as is and put all the due diligence and onus on the convenience store to do all that.
Mike from Tampa: I got you.
Andrew Duncan: They may or may not require that as a contingency of contract. They should, but a lot of times they don’t. They think that they can get that themselves so the one thing I would do is I would probably work with a real estate attorney to help you negotiate, put the deal together and just to protect yourself. Sometimes in these scenarios the purchaser of the property that’s attempting to add to their property doesn’t really do the right due diligence and that’s not your problem. That’s really on their end and then they deal with the hassle of getting it all changed-over later, re-zoned and approved and kosher with the city or county, depending on where the property is.
Mike from Tampa: Ah, just out of curiosity: if I decided to do it on my own and hire real estate attorney for a prices like this is it a couple of thousands expense, is it a ten thousand dollar expense?
Andrew Duncan: Yes, there is no way I could answer that. That would really be more for the attorney to answer and then, secondarily, it’s going to depend on what else is attached to your property; what the current zoning is. There is so many variables, it’s impossible for me to answer that easily in this kind of the setting but what I want to tell you is: the attorney would probably be the best place to get that advice and they’ll be able to give you a pretty good quote of what it would cost after they go through the whole consultation with you.
Mike from Tampa: OK, thank you very much.
Andrew Duncan: Appreciate, thanks for your call, Mike. And thanks for tuning in. So, we’re here talking on the Duncan Duo Real Estate Show. You can call us with your questions: 990-9352 in Hillsborough, 461-9352 in Pinellas, toll-free 1-800-969-9352. Before the news break I just want to also mention some upcoming shows we have. Next week show, we’re actually going to have a kid show. We’re going to have kids of real estate agents and real estate professionals on the show. Little kids like eight, nine, 10 years old. My daughter, Isela is going to be on the show and we’re just going to ask them real estate questions just to see what they learned. I think it would be pretty funny and kind of interesting.
The week after that, we’ve got Richard back on the show with us again with our home inspector, Randy Noon. October 7th, we are going to have ERC Homes and Pulte Homes, builders and developers on the show talking about that segment of the market and then the market encounters for October 14th are: if you own real estate or have an interest in real estate market in another part of Florida, we’re going to be talking during that show with real estate agents from around state of Florida about how the market’s doing in Orlando and Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville, Jacksonville – all the major cities in Florida we’ve got covered and we’re going to have them on the show and a number of real estate agents talking about those markets and letting us know what’s going on in those respective places.
Again, if you have questions, we’d love the opportunity to talk to you: 990-9352 in Hillsborough, 461-9352 in Pinellas and also you can post your questions on our Facebook page, which is facebook.com/theduncanduoshow. So, we’re going to continue the conversation with Ryan from Tampa Bay Plumbers, Richard from Artisan Insurance and Robert Johnson from my real estate team as well as answer some email questions after a quick newsbreak here, on 970WFLA.
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The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show. Now, your host: Andrew Duncan.
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Andrew Duncan: We’re back here in Tampa Bay. We will still take your calls. If you have a real estate question: home-owner’s insurance questions, plumbing questions – we’d love the opportunity to talk to you: 990-9352 in Hillsborough, 461-9352 in Pinellas and toll-free 1-800-969-9352. You can also go onto our Facebook fan page, like the page and post your questions on there. The URL for that is: facebook.com/theduncanduoshow, but if you’re driving right now, please don’t do it while you’re driving. Stop, pull off the road and then go to facebook.com/theduncanduoshow. So, with the FTC wins against our housing infomercial scam, a judge has awarded the Federal Trade Commission 478 million dollars in a judgment against three marketers of real estate infomercials accused of defrauding nearly a million consumers.
You know, it looks like they were selling a $39.95 product, pushing infomercials for people – I think it was called a John Becks Free and Clear Real Estate System according to FloridaRealEstate.org, nonetheless, I wanted to touch on this because I get people who call us and email us and ask us questions probably every month to say: “Hey, is this thing for real? Can I go and immediately learn how to flip homes and make millions of dollars?” Can you make a lot of money in real estate? Yes. Can you flip homes and make money in real estate? Absolutely! You can invest in real estate, you can do very well. But is it as easy as it’s depicted in some of these advertisements? No. It’s a lot more challenging and there is a lot more risk and a lot…you know, if it’s too good to be true, if it sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme, it probably is. Nothing replaces educating yourself and learning the market. Finding a mentor even is probably a much better way than buying a ‘learn to do something’ on CD, DVD or whatever it is.
Also, I wanted to talk about Zillow and Trulia in a legal battle. If you guys don’t know: Zillow and Trulia – the two websites that generate a lot of traffic. Zillow has a patent for its’ so called Zestimate and apparently Trulia has now been doing a home evaluation that Zillow thinks draws closer to their Zestiment. There is a law suit between the two companies now. Interestingly enough, I wanted to touch on that. I’ve got Robert Johnson from my real estate team here. Robert, how often do you run into consumer who calls and asks us to sell their home and they have a perception of value based on what’s on one of these websites that’s pretty off a lot of times?
Robert Johnson: Pretty much all the time. I feel like that’s usually where consumers start almost before they call us or on the by-side before they put in an offer. It can draw a wrench to the whole process because the negative thing about the home evaluations online is they have no idea about xx location or location in the neighborhood or improvements to the home. I mean, it’s really not a great place to start and I think we were talking in the office the other day I think they have a rating system about how accurate they are.
Andrew Duncan: They do! They have a disclaimer on their website. It’s, basically, a disclaimer that says how off they are in a certain area. And I want to say that their plus or minus in Tampa is almost like 15 or 20 percent. I think, literally, I can drive by a house and peg it closer than that but that’s all off their scenario. But it’s discouraging because people go in with a perception that it is a correct number. And some can do all that they want with putting disclaimers on their websites and saying: “Oh, you know, well we’re just a Zestimate, we’re not an appraiser or…” Nothing replaces a real estate professional or a real estate appraiser valuing the property because no data, nothing that they do is ever going to be able to replace that. They’re never going to be foolproof. And I’ve seen it go both ways. I’ve seen it above and I’ve seen below.
Robert Johnson: Yeah. I think it does go both ways and again, a house down the street could sell and it could completely change the value by 20,000 with their online system so it’s really one of those things where you will have to be specific. How specific? When I’m going to meet with the seller, I have to really lay it out with each house and it’s just impossible for Zillow to do something like that.
Andrew Duncan: Yes. And they don’t claim to be. I think now they really worry more about claiming the traffic and selling ads and things like that. But what’s interesting behind the two websites and this litigation that’s going on: apparently Trulia is infringing on – they’re copying of Zillow’s innovative approach to home valuation – they call it, which they should call ‘home estimation’ – with errors [giggles]. Nonetheless, it’s interesting because a lot of people do have that perception but we’re running into it all time how Zillow is either up or down on the price. Zillow cannot tell the school district boundary. They cannot tell if you’ve got a nice neighborhood and then the ghetto right next to it. I’ve seen homes comped close to really nice neighborhoods where it’s not a nice neighborhood pull a lot higher number on Zillow because it’s pulling in [xx] right next door. So, it’s really challenging to run into that.
So, I just wanted to talk on that a little bit and if you’re listening and have comments about that or you’re curious about how your Zillow value adds up, you can call us if you’re looking for a free home evaluation. We have a product that’s called the Market Snapshot that does a much better job than Zillow and you can check that out at tampamarketanalysis.com. Again, it’s at tampamarketanalysis.com.
So Citizens approves a new re-inspection program, Richard, and low interest loans for insurers. What is this all about?
Richard Vazquez: Well, this is really a complex issue. Like I mentioned earlier in the show, Citizens has been trying to figure out ways for years that they can stop receiving so many insurance policies; that insurance agents will find other ways to other places to place their customers rather than sending them through to Citizens. And what they’ve been trying to do is they call it ‘de-population’. Basically, they’re getting standardized insurance companies to take policies away from Citizens. And the way they’ve done it in the past, they’ve had kind of mixed results there. To be honest with you, a lot of those customers get taken away from Citizens and in two years later wind up right back at Citizens.
So, the new plan – and there’re still a lot of details to be worked out – but the new plan is to offer up to 350 million dollars in loans and these loans would come out of Citizen’s surplus to insurance companies that are willing to take policies away from Citizens. Now, they have to meet some criteria. You cannot just go up and start an insurance company tomorrow and say: “OK, sign me up for the program.” There are some very specific requirements that the insurance companies have to meet and, basically, this is reserved for the larger insurance companies. The little fly-by-night insurance companies aren’t going to meet these guidelines. But if they take these policies away they qualify for low interest loans. The big thing, the big kicker here is that they have to agree to keep those policies for 10 years rather than turning around two years later and sending them back to Citizens. So that’s a good thing.
If you were with Citizens before and all of a sudden you’re getting a notice that you’re going to be taken up by a very large, very reputable, very well known insurance company, that’s a good thing. I would think everybody would be pretty happy with that. But a lot of details that have to be worked out on: are they going to be able to raise your rates so that way down the road you’re going to have to just go searching around for more insurance and wind up back at Citizens. That’s the big question mark in my mind. How are they going to control the rates?
Andrew Duncan: Sure. So, we have a caller who called and it looks like they have a friend or family member that has a home with a plumbing issue and they want to know should they fix it or sell it as is. I think it is what we were talking about before. One of the challenges with that is if they sell it as is…if the plumbing issue…let’s say, for example, it’s a complete, like poly-butylene…What’s the cost of something like that? So somebody, let’s say you find that the whole plumbing system is just ‘turd burns’.
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Ryan Pelky: First, as you explained it, poly-butylene piping is used for water distribution only. It’s not for drainage or sewer line works. So that’s just where your water supply comes in the house. If you have poly to re-pipe the house for typical two-bathroom, three-bedroom home, around 2,000 square feet, those re-pipes normally go for anywhere between four and five thousand dollars, with permits, drywall repairs, paint and everything out the door. Those are permit-requiring jobs.
Andrew Duncan: Sure.
Ryan Pelky: You have to have a notice of commencement filed before you can call in your inspection. They are a little more time-consuming. Prior a lot of people have had re-piped recently without a permit and they were like: “I wonder why my job wasn’t permitted.” They are positively permit-requiring jobs. That’s what you can expect knowing that as bathroom count goes up and the square-footage goes up, the more pipe, the larger pipe, the more expensive…
Andrew Duncan: It will cost more.
Ryan Pelky: Yeah, the more expensive it becomes.
Andrew Duncan: So, I think, the issue there that it’s going to be depending on what the plumbing issue is. So, let’s say it is something like that that would prevent them from getting insurance. Yes, you’d want to take care of that because if they cannot get insurance, they cannot get a loan. They would be selling to only cash people and they’re going to want a discount for that condition. More so than it would cost you to fix it so some of it’s going to depend on the neighborhood. A lot of foreclosures still sell and they have tons of issues, you know. It’s the price. Sometimes it’s…can those things that they do to the plumbing or to whatever it is repaired it after you get to the point where they can qualify for insurance and where it can be OK. If it’s a minor plumbing issue, a few hundred dollar repair, you can probably sometimes can get that negotiated and disclose it and then the buyer takes care of it and still sell it and the price difference not be so much. But if it’s a big issue that would prevent insurance – that could potentially spook potential buyers…
Ryan Pelky: Those are the deal-breakers.
Andrew Duncan: Yeah, eliminate the person that wants to buy into and it only qualifies for self-investors. They’re going to want it cheap or else…if that’s not going to make sense for them to do it – they’re going to not buy it unless they can get it cheap. So I think it depends on the neighborhood, it depends on the plumbing issue that’s there, but if it’s a plumbing issue that could eliminate financing or cause problems with insurance, you want to take care of it ahead of time because nothing worse than finding it out after the fact. You’ve also got to disclose it upfront. If you’re disclosing that it’s got that issue and the consumers in their mind are going to be concerned that maybe there are other things there.
Richard Vazquez: Yeah. From an insurance perspective: poly-butylene pipes is death sentence. If your house is discovered to have poly-butylene pipes, until those are repaired – I’m sorry, until they are replaced, until the house is re-plumbed – you’re not going to be able to get insurance. But, you know, if there’s an active leak underneath one of the kitchen sinks, then that’s something that…just get it taken care of, show proof that you got it taken care of by a licensed plumber – don’t tell them that your cousin Bob did that.
Andrew Duncan: I’ll tell you: the permitting things are a big issue, too, because if you get inspected during the four-point or FHA, some of the lending people actually look into that stuff.
Richard Vazquez: Right.
Andrew Duncan: If it says that something’s done, repairs were done in 2010 and then FHA finds out something wasn’t permitted, oh good luck in that getting closed. Because…
Richard Vazquez: Uninsurable
Andrew Duncan: Literally, I can tell you: if stuff’s done that’s not up to code or permitted, causes major financing problems.
Richard Vazquez: Right, exactly.
Andrew Duncan: You definitely want to make sure whatever you’re doing, permit it, get the work done and approved by an inspector. So, we’ll be right back to wrap up the last segment of the show after a quick break on 970WFLA.
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Andrew Duncan: So, we’re back here in the last segment of the show and I wanted to get to an email question that we got that we couldn’t get to last week: Angelica from South Tampa wants to sell her home and buy something larger but is concerned about buying something before she sells hers. What can she do? I think, Angelica, if you focus on hiring just any real to sell your home, this is what’s going to happen [crash sound effect], OK? You want to make sure you hire somebody that can get your home sold.
I think that’s the perfect solution for a guaranteed sale program, because we can guarantee delivery of results. I think what a lot of people in this scenario are looking to do is take advantage of low interest rates, the improvement on the market and move up. Robert, I know you work with a lot of our clients, too. How often are people today selling their home and moving up?
Robert Johnson: It’s very, very, very common. With the rates the way they are and especially people in older homes are for some reason wanting brand new, new construction, larger homes. It’s very common right now.
Andrew Duncan: So it’s a matter of just trusting someone. You’ve got to make sure the numbers work first. Whatever you need out of selling your home, we’re going to make sure that we can deliver that. And then secondarily, there are some things that you can do from a contingency stand-point to tie the things together so let’s say, for example, you are buying something, you can make a contingent on the sale of yours. Or vice-versa: let’s say someone buys your home before you find something, you can make a contingent. Guess how many people we’ve had go homeless that we represented in our real estate transactions? Just take a guess, guys. How many do you think have gone homeless?
Richard Vazquez: I would say ‘zero’.
Ryan Pelky: I’m going to put my money on ‘zero’.
Andrew Duncan: It’s ‘zero’. We never had anyone go homeless, guys. So if you’re thinking about doing this scenario, trust us, there’s ways that we can work around this: simultaneous closings, back-to-back closings. But there’s a great opportunity right now for you to move up and take advantage of the market, sell your home and buy and like we were talking about it before, as you climb the price charts, the markets start to get a little weaker, so you might even get more negotiating leverage. And then, if the market recovers, that property that you bought at a higher price is going to appreciate that the same percentage is lowering. You’re going to make some money there. So it’s definitely a good opportunity for that. Our guaranteed sale program is at soldorwebuyit.com. I think it’s your perfect solution, Angelica.
We talk a lot on the show about our smoking hot deals. Every week we have advertised our smoking hot deals website [sound effect] and our smoking hot deals at tampabaysmokingdeals.com. We hand-pick some of the best bargains in the market: foreclosures, short sales, waterfront homes, condos, from Tierra Verde to New Tampa, to Apollo Beach and South Tampa. Basically, the entire Tri-County Area between 60 and 70 homes that we’ve picked as some of the best bargains in the marketplace every week. So, check out Tampa Bay Smoking Deals.
A couple of the homes featured on our website today are actually open. We’ve got two listings in Carrollwood that we’re holding open today from 12:00 to 2:00, so if you want to meet Robert Johnson and Rebecca Hill – no, Michael Barbino or Rebecca Hill from our real estate team, 10702 Lake Carroll Way and 10601 Lake Carroll Way – a block away from each other in original Carrollwood are going to be open today and they’re both featured on tampabaysmokingdeals.com where the best real estate bargains in Tampa Bay are hosted by our real estate team.
So, I also want to get to one more email question really quickly. Jerry, also from South Tampa: having a hard time finding a decent three-two, under $200,000. Everything he finds gets a bidding war. How can he find and win a deal on a home? And this is like the story of our life right now, right Robert? How often do we…That’s the same…Every time that we sit down with our buyer agents each week, we say: “What are you looking for?” I hear like 72 people looking for a $200,000, three-two in South Tampa.
Robert Johnson: Oh, yeah. I mean, South Tampa, he might want to broaden his search a little bit. The inventory is very, very low.
Andrew Duncan: It’s hard. For $200,000, it is really hard for $200,000. You could get creative and maybe find a home that needs rehab, buy it cheap and then renovate it to extend it to that number if you have capital, but that price point, right now in South Tampa is just…$200,000 is really hard to find, especially when he wants to be in the Plant District . What I will tell you: you might have greater success if you go north of Kennedy . There’s some stuff in the 150 to 200 range but still in Plant. I think it goes up to – school boundary goes up to Gray and I think one more block above Gray Street, so it goes a few blocks north of Kennedy but a lot of people don’t look in that area. So, if you’re OK being north of Kennedy, there’s opportunities still being in Plant under $200,000 and still have kind of the same convenient location. So that’s a good option to look for, Jerry, as you peruse. And, obviously, that’s a part of the market that’s really challenged and not much inventory.
So, we’ll be back here on the show next week to answer your questions and in the meantime, when we aren’t on air, do check us out on Facebook. You can search for ‘theDuncanDuoShow’ or on YouTube by searching for ‘theDuncanDuo’. Thanks so much for tuning in and have a great rest of your Sunday.