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Tallahassee, FL Real Estate News

By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
1513 Atkamire Dr #A & B, Tallahassee, FL Click here to Get Directions$275000 5 Beds - Photos Maps & Local Schools Print FANTASTICOPPORTUNITY on a quiet street walking distance to FSU!! Featuring three bedroom, one bath apartment UP (APT A) and two bedroom, one bathroom apartment DOWN (APT B), this property is an investors or owner-occupants dream. Both apartments feature extensively renovated interiors and many structural updates (APT A - 2019 Roof, 2018 Water Heater, 2020 HVAC; APT B - 2019 Roof, 2018 HVAC, renovated kitchen with new appliances), but also allowing the next owner to put their personal touch on the home. This ideal location is convenient to shopping, schools, parks and entertainment for home buyers or is a great investment opportunity - do not miss this one before it is...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
528 Truett Dr, Tallahassee, FL Click here to Get Directions$400000 4 Beds - 2 Baths - 0.27 acres Lot Photos Maps & Local Schools Print Coming Soon till 3/14!! Location is top tier on a lot that would be very difficult to find again! Seller will replace roof prior to closing with acceptable offer. Perfect for large family needing extra space. Exterior space with unmatched potential for entertaining large groups or happy pets! Minutes from the Capital, FSU and the highway. Showings start 3/14! Follow This Home
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
1003 Hiawatha Drive, Tallahassee, FL Click here to Get Directions$225,000 4 Baths - 0.25 acres Lot Photos Maps & Local Schools Print Nestled in Southeast Tallahassee, this fantastic three bedroom, two bath lives large with a well appointed kitchen with updated appliances and breakfast nook opening into the living room, a separate dining or additional living space or office space, vaulted ceilings in the private & oversized master suite upstairs with his-and-hers closets, interior laundry and an abundance of windows throughout the home that allow for much desired natural light. Updates have been completed (2020 HVAC and duct work, 2019 Roof & 2021 Water Heater). This ideal location is convenient to downtown, shopping, parks and entertainment for home buyers, or is a great investment opp...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
30 Sand Pine Cir, Midway, FL Click here to Get Directions$290000 3 Beds - 2 Baths - 10890 sqft Lot Photos Maps & Local Schools Print 2 hr notice for easy showings** **Heated/Cooled space in garage not included in sq ftg and can easily be removed** This turnkey All Brick property seems to tick all the boxes for convenience and comfort. Its close proximity to the highway, as well as its short commute of roughly 25min to the Capital and FSU stadium, make it incredibly desirable location. And with the added bonus of savings on property taxes and utilities, it's not just a great home but also a smart investment. Plus, knowing that the HVAC system was replaced in 2014 and the property has only been owner-occupied adds to its appeal. Follow This Home
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
As a REALTOR® in Tallahassee, Florida who does a lot of marketing on the internet, I like to see what others are doing around the Country and around the world. I was pleasantly surprised tonight as I was checking out our customer ratings on Google. I had been googling “realtor in victoria bc” after receiving a compliment from a top agent in their market. I was curious to see how and where he showed up on google’s search results. After doing so, I figured I would check out how CENTURY 21 First Realty ranked when googling “realtor in tallahassee florida.” And that is where I saw five (5) unsolicited customer reviews. Each one had a five-star rating and each one shared a story about a different transaction involving a different REALTOR® in our Tallahassee, Florida office. You can see them ...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
In preparing for our Weekly Special Housing Report which is emailed to subscribers every Monday morning, I poured through a lot of data on Tallahassee Subdivisions in order to find out which ones had the highest turnover rate. To measure the turnover rate, I divided the number of existing home sales by the total number of homes in each subdivision. In the real estate graph below, two important statistics are measured for each Tallahassee Subdivision. On the left axis, the turnover rate is shown, while the growth rates is recorded on the right axis. The growth rate is the number of new homes sold this year, divided by the total number of homes in the subdivision as of the end of last year. Considering that there are over 1,300 recognized subdivisions in Tallahassee, I find it surprising...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Yesterday, the National Association of REALTORS® released the November edition of the Existing Home Sales Report and and pointed out a positive trend for the first time in five months. Of course, any time NAR releases a report, we have to look at Lawrence Yun’s spin on what it says. As NAR chief economist, Dr. Yun is responsible for taking home sales data and making the housing market look good (not an easy job these days). Of the November report, Dr. Yun opined: Continuing gains in home sales are encouraging, and the positive impact of steady job creation will more than trump some negative impact from a modest rise in mortgage interest rates, which remain historically favorable … The relationship recently between mortgage interest rates, home prices and family income has been the most...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
You probably have been somewhere in Tallahassee and seen QR codes and wondered to yourself what they were all about. Are they some new form of rorschach inkblot test, or perhaps a maze game created to drive you mad. No, QR codes are nothing more than bar codes with spots instead of the traditional bars. When scanned with a smart-phone, they cause the phone to load data. If the data is a URL, that web page opens on the phone. So why is a real estate blog featuring a story on QR codes in Tallahassee? I was beginning to wonder the same thing… Use Tallahassee QR Codes With Your Smart Phone I’ve seen recent estimates that show 50% of browser surfing will be on smart phones within the next two years. Now personally, I find that hard to believe, as I like my large monitor and big fat keyboard...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Everybody knows that we have a lot of homes for sale in Tallahassee, but we do not often go into great detail about what is on the market. Today’s blog post will show a simple break-down of the offerings in the Tallahassee housing market. One of the first questions people ask when they start the process of buying a home, they want to know about distressed homes for sale in Tallahassee. They want to know about bank owned properties, foreclosures, short sales, and any homes that offer seller financing of some sort. They want to know about homes that offer lease purchase. Home buyers today want to really know the “lay of the land.” Current Inventory Of Homes For Sale In Tallahassee The real estate graph above shows that roughly 73% of the homes for sale in Tallahassee are listed as “arms ...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
The real estate disclaimer below is for all of the people who are thinking of selling their home in 2011. Considering the changes that the real estate market has seen since most people (needing to sell a home) purchased their homes, I feel it is important to point this out: Past performance is not indicative of future results. Selling real estate and hiring a real estate broker involves substantial risk of loss no matter how nice your home and as such selecting a real estate brokerage should not be taken lightly. Selling a home involves unlimited risk of loss. Home sellers must read and understand the current disclosure document before deciding whom to hire. I know, I know … what disclosure statement? How about the one in the back of your mind that you use before you do something very ...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Pending home sales appear to be rising from a new market bottom as we head into Christmas week 2010. This is very good news, as we cannot expect future home sales to rise if new sales contracts are on the decline. We measure these new sales contracts, which the industry calls “pending home sales,” in order to get a picture of the future of closed home sales (typically 2 months into the future). By tracking contracts, these future closings are follow a consistent pattern. In the real estate graph above, we observe that the past four weeks has seen some growth from what was a plummeting pending home sales report. We hope that this continues and that we can start see this trend rise from what we hope to be the “final” market bottom. Read more: http://www.manausa.com/market-report/pending-...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Even Jim Cramer has backed off his real estate recovery expectations. Every since I began writing about the housing market crash, my “second longest” reader (of course, Mom was the first to read what I was writing…) has often said that Jim Cramer was much more optimistic in the pace of the recovery of the housing market than what I was reporting. He pointed out that “Cramer says…” on a few occasions, but ultimately I knew once Cramer’s staff really started doing their homework, they would see what I see. I would love to see a quicker recovery of the housing market, but the issue at hand is all about supply and demand. It really is simple. We have too many homes in most of the US housing markets, and Tallahassee appears to be a very typical US city. I can tell you from my 20 years of an...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
I have several current projects that I would love to complete over the holiday season, but real estate video research moved into an entirely new category for this Tallahassee real estate broker. This is no longer a “how do we use it” project on my desk, rather it is a “how to we schedule and complete it” operation for our entire office. For our long-time readers of the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog (subscribed via email subscription), you might want to actually visit our blog on the web. We have updated the site and will record over five million (5M) page views in 2010. And apparently our visitors want to see more real estate videos. Currently, we only have a few real estate video offerings on our site, but we are looking to expand our library. And we want to ask for your requests! What ...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  To say that the Tallahassee Foreclosure Report is improving might sound like an oxymoron, but it is true … the bad news about distressed properties in Tallahassee is getting better! Huh? Here is what I mean. While foreclosures (lis pendens filings) are not good news for the parties involved, seeing the number of new lis pendens being filed falling each month is good news. And that is what we are seeing. The real estate graph above measure some key trends (where a trend is the one-year average of something being recorded) including new lis pendens filings in Leon County, new foreclosure sales, and then finally the ratio between the two. Right now, the number of annual lis pendens filings is near a two-year low, while the annual number of final sales is at an all-time high. The resultin...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
December 14, 2010 – This is the time of year where every real estate site is posting its 2011 real estate market forecast, so I thought I would do the same. My thoughts on next year’s housing market will not come as a surprise to our long-time readers, as we are constantly measuring and reporting the current state of the Tallahassee real estate market. We have projected and reported falling home values in Tallahassee for the past three years. We will continue to do so now. While it is no fun to be the bearer of bad news, I think it is important to have a great understanding of the Tallahassee housing market if you are buying or selling anytime soon. With knowledge comes power, right? Year Over Year Home Sales Report One quick way to see “how things are going” is to study year-over-year...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
There are no real surprises this quarter on the Killearn Lakes 1 home sales report. Home values in KLP1 have depreciated, on average, above 30% since the height of the market in March 2007. Checking on the current Tallahassee home inventory report, we know that pricing pressures will continue due to the glut of homes for sale. Here is a classic real estate appreciation measurement in the real estate graph below. We see that homes were averaging about 5 sales per month at the peak of the market but have since dropped to just above 2 home sales per month. Values once trended above $140 per square foot have dropped to $101 per month for the past two months, but have trended down to $114 per square foot. Home Values In Unit 1 Of Killearn Lakes Plantation Another way to look at home values ...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  Now that short sales are such a large portion of the housing market, we should expect to see more home buyers using a credit repair company to help re-establish themselves as credit-worthy for new home loans. Considering that a majority of home sales in Tallahassee are going to be distressed property, I felt it would be prudent to report how credit repair works and what future homebuyers can expect from these types of operations. The first thing that I learned when researching what to expect from a credit repair company is that many of these operations are not on the “up and up.” It is very important that anybody with damaged credit first do their homework before just paying the first credit repair site to magically promise them an instant 800 credit score …. because that is not going...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
  Recently, a friend and I were talking about how tough it was being a Tallahassee real estate agent in our current housing market. I had been explaining to him the joyless task of explaining property values to home sellers who had seen 30% of their equity disappear and his remarks afterward really put things into perspective for me. You see, the job of being a Tallahassee real estate agent in the past has been relatively painless. Sure, there were many hours of work, but my work always centered around something that ultimately brought joy to an individual or a family. Helping somebody move from one home to another is often times stressful, but the reason for the move was most-often a positive one. But lately, having to deliver often-times grim news about Tallahassee property values has...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Monthly home sales in Killearn Lakes (Unit 2) have fallen to levels similar to 1993, and the impact of the Homebuyer Tax Credit appears to be mostly negated at this point. This popular Northeast Tallahassee neighborhood is seeing home sales each month at a rate that is only 30% of where it was in 2006 at the peak of the housing market. In the real estate graph above, the number of home sales in Killearn Lakes 2 has been plotted each month, and then three trend lines have been generated. All 3 trend lines report falling numbers. On average over the past ten years, 4.2 homes are selling each month (but this number is falling) On average over the past five years, 2.7 homes are selling each month (but this number is falling) On average over the past year, 2.2 homes are selling each month (...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
A very well respected national real estate trainer sent out an email last night promoting his new training course regarding techniques for REALTORS® to keep home sellers happy. My first thought when seeing the email was to delete it, because I know the simple solution to this age-old problem. But then I actually went back to my “deleted items” folder and restored the message because I knew it would help me make a simple point about how most real estate agents conduct their business versus the techniques and processes that we use to sell homes here at CENTURY 21 First Realty in Tallahassee. Not only did I recover the email, but I actually went to his site and watched the video on how to keep home sellers happy. I was expecting a lot of garbage that I knew rookie REALTORS would love to h...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
Killearn Lakes 3 home sales are closing at rates far lower than they were during the height of the Tallahassee housing market, and it appears that this popular Northeast Tallahassee neighborhood has got more to give back to the market. The real estate graph below shows declining short, medium and long term trends in KLP3 home values. In the graph above, the gold points show the average value of Killearn Lakes 3 homes sold each month, while the colored lines show the average values over time. The short term trend is dropping rapidly (down over 30% since the peak of the market), while the medium term trend has fallen nearly 10% over the past year. Here are a few points we can glean from the real estate graph above: When we study the home appreciation trends in Killearn Lakes Unit 3, I be...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
The Tallahassee housing market continues to cool, but some areas and some prices are doing better than others. I always recommend prospective home buyer and home sellers look at the current monthly inventory report in the sidebar of the Tallahassee Housing Report. Each one contains months of supply (the inverse of home absorption rate) for all four quadrants of Leon County, Florida. In the real estate graph above, the red line is the number of listings on the market each month, the green line is the number of sales, while the blue bars measure months of supply (inventory of homes) in Tallahassee. Even though we are seeing the supply of homes for sale in Tallahassee continue to drop, slowing sales is actually moving at a faster rate, thus forcing an increase in the relative supply of ho...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
The internet has made shopping for a home so much easier, and many web sites have emerged with some great tools for homebuyers. But I have to admit that I just don’t “get” craigslist when it comes to real estate. Craigslist is to real estate as 8 track tape is to quality recording, but amazingly home buyers are still using the service. All craigslist does is run an old-fashioned bulletin board style site where anybody can post homes for sale. As each new home hits the site, it pushes the previous listing downward. This not exactly what I would consider user-friendly. Typical Display Of Real Estate Ads On Craigslist So just looking at the current ads, you see homes for sale mixed with homes for rent, and no practical way for a serious homebuyer or home seller to sort through the informa...
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By Joe Manausa - Tallahassee, FL, Tallahassee Real Estate
(Joe Manausa Real Estate)
A great blog article yesterday accurately reported that invisible homes will not sell. The author pointed out that one of the primary reasons that homeowners fail to sell their home is due to a lack of visibility on the internet, and I agree (with one strong caveat) with the blogger. In his article titled 7 Reasons Why Your House Won’t Sell, Alan May’s 4th point was: Your property won’t sell because you’re invisible. Today’s buyer comes from the internet, almost exclusively.  Have you (or your agent) simply plopped the property on the MLS, and started praying?  Are you on all the websites…(Trulia, Zillow, Craig’s List, Google Base, etc…) all the places that buyers are searching?  If not, you need to be, now! Don’t try to be a secret, in today’s electronic world.  You want to be found, ...
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