Special offer

Winter Haven, FL Real Estate News

By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
One common misconception out there about FHA loans is that you can only have one at a time.  Although it is most common for folks to have only one FHA loan, there are cases where Winter Haven, Florida home buyers might in fact qualify to purchase two homes using FHA financing. If you live here in the Winter Haven area and are considering a second home purchase, contact me so we can determine whether you might qualify for a second FHA loan. In the meantime, if you're in the market for a second FHA home loan, here are some basic parameters to follow: Do you have limited down payment funds? Do the funds you have available for your FHA down payment qualify solely as family gift funds? Do you have a lower credit score than is typically allowed for a conventional loan? (Lower than 650) If you...
Comments 1
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
For many in the first time Florida homebuyer category, the biggest obstacle is usually... wait for it... yup!  You guessed it... the down payment! Shoot.  Even those of you reading this who are no longer home buying virgins most likely remember saying something like: "Man, I'd like to buy a home but don't have the money for the down payment or closing costs!" Up until October 1st of this year, many first time homebuyers looked to Downpayment Assistance Programs (DPAs) like those offered through Nehemiah and Ameridream as a means of sourcing the funds necessary to meet FHA's 3 percent  (now 3.5 percent) down payment requirement plus cover some if not all of their closing costs.  Though DPAs as many of us have come to know them have been suspended, there are lesser known alternatives out ...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
What Is A Florida FHA Home Loan? FHA stands for Federal Housing Administration. The FHA regulates these loans and offers them at more competitive terms and rates to keep home ownership affordable for a wider variety of people. This makes a Florida FHA Home Loan ideal for first time home buyers or those with less than perfect credit. However, there are some strict requirements, so this is not the right choice for everyone. Advantages of FHA Loans for First Time or Damaged Credit Home Buyers The credit requirements for FHA home loans are much lower than other traditional mortgage loans. You must have some credit established, but there is greater flexibility for accepting credit imperfections. You can even use non-traditional ways of proving payment history, such as utilities or rental his...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
With the increasing popularity of FHA loan programs here in Winter Haven, I'm amazed at how many "myths" that seem to be floating around.  Folks are obviously starting to do their homework, which is great!  However, I figured I'd point my local Winter Haven home buyers and potential refinance clients in the right direction on a few key points: FHA program and many FHA myths still abound. Here are a few points of clarification... MYTH: It's harder to qualify FHA. False: Qualifying is far easier with FHA! Just a few of the benefits here include: Credit scores in the 580 range are doable. Non-traditional credit requires only 3 credit lines, manual underwriting is available. Only 3.5% buyer downpayment is required, including FHA-Jumbo. Many allowable sources available for funds to close inc...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
In my continued efforts to clear up some of the mystery that still seems to surround FHA lending here in Winter Haven, Florida - I've pulled together 5 "Quick Hit" FHA secrets you should keep handy as you do your home loan homework! When using a non-occupant co-borrower, such as parents, the occupant borrower is not required to have any income or assets of his/her own 2- to 4-unit owner-occupied properties are eligible for 97% financing at the same interest rate as 1-unit homes Mom and Dad can lend, not gift, some or all of the money for closing, and put a second lien against the home that exceeds 100% Loan to Value (LTV = Loan Amount / Home's Value)  Note: The $7,500 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit can be used to pay Mom and Dad back! 15 year loans at 90% LTV have ZERO monthly mortgage...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Not yet. But... things may change! Rep. Al Green [D-TX] introduced H.R. 600,  to revise and reinstateseller-financed downpayments for mortgages for single-family housing insured by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under title II of the National Housing Act. Track the progress of this bill via RSS feed from GovTrack.us or visit the site periodically to stay informed.  I'll also be posting updates here. Note: This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee.  We can't let this happen to H.R. 600. Like many of you, I believe in this program.  If you wish to see it ...
Comments 6
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Well, folks... we've seen yet another week of the headlines squawking about plummeting mortgage rates here in Winter Haven, Florida and across the nation. Eyes bulged and exclamations roared as the papers let fly with Freddie Mac's recently published mortgage rate resting at a very alluring 4.96 percent, the lowest since the survey started in 1971!  (Cue the Awhooooogahhhh Horn!) Ah, but wait.  There's more.... You see, if we but take a moment to curb our enthusiasm and peer behind the proverbial Winter Haven home loan rate curtain, we find that there's another part of the story worth watching.  Mortgage rates are falling but the number of points required to lock those rates is not. Mortgage Rates Plunge as Mortgage Points Climb Yup, your recently bailed out mortgage bank is requiring  ...
Comments 1
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
If you've been following this blog with any regularity, you know that I am an avid promoter of all things social media and networking.  I'm a fan because it works. Since I embarked on a full fledged social media barrage via this blog, my Florida Home Loans Specialist website,  my work on the FHA Mortgage Blog, and a burgeoning effort over at my Wanna Networks managed Central Florida Homes and Loan Report blog, a new and amazing world has opened up to me. Potential clients and Realtor partners are calling me! I don't close every client deal or create winning relationships with each Realtor I talk to,  but what I am not doing is ticking off clients and potential Realtor partners by interrupting them and jamming my message in their face when they'd much rather be tending to family matters...
Comments 10
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Well, we're off to a pretty good start for the 2009 year here in Winter Haven, as calls have been coming in for refinancing and a few home purchases.  W2s are starting to come in as well, with tax time coming up faster than I'd like to admit.  Luckily, as a homeowner, I have the interest I paid on my home to help alleviate any sting that might await me when I hit that final button in Turbo Tax.  I love mortgage interest for just that reason.  I'm also a fan of real estate taxes for their tax reduction properties.   However, like most IRS-related items, the exact nature of the mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions tends to be a bit foggy.  So, as your friendly neighborhood Florida home loans specialist, allow me to clear things up a bit: Homeowners are entitled to two basic ho...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
The prices for Mortgage Backed Securities have dropped this morning - which means mortgage rates here in Winter Haven will move higher - as the Government's bail out efforts pertaining to Bank of America seem to have some investors putting money back into higher-risk assets. Consumer Sentiment rose a bit last month - which was a good thing - mainly due to retreating gas prices.  However, fuel prices are starting to climb a bit now, which has us rolling on the river again. Industrial Production fell as factories are reducing output and spending as exports slow. If you see a rate you like or want to know exactly where you stand today, give me a call at 863-604-3019 so we can see about locking you in.  My guess is that we'll see an increase moving into next week unless the present landscap...
Comments 2
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Winter Haven, Florida mortgage rates might be falling, but the costs of financing your Florida home are rising.  To understand why, we need to talk a little about conforming versus non-conforming loans. See, conforming loans are loans written according to strict guidelines and borrowers need to have, among other things, good credit and verifiable income.  Non-conforming loans take us a bit closer to the "sub-prime" loans we've been hearing so much about... those loans that, in many cases, should never have been made in the first place. Well, the massive onslaught of homes financed with non-conforming loans has been all over the press, and many a bank has tanked as a result of investing in mortgage baked securities comprised of these little stinkers.  However, starting in late-2007, Fann...
Comments 1
By Bryant Tutas, Selling Florida one home at a time
(Tutas Towne Realty, Inc and Garden Views Realty, LLC)
I hate open houses! There I said it. It's out in the open and I'm not taking it back. I don't do them and I'm not starting. My Sellers know this. I tell them this at time of listing. "I will sell your house but I will not do an open house, ever." Once, I had two of my Sellers call me wanting to do open houses. So being the good little Broker that I am, I said "no". Now don't get me wrong, I like pleasing my Sellers and I like being agreeable when they ask me to do things. But I'm not doing it! I'm going fishing. It was Saturday and the fish were biting. So what do you do? Being as how both of these Sellers were long time customers, we compromised. They had their own open houses. Yup, you heard me right. They had their own open houses. One had a yard sale and the other was home all weeke...
Comments 48
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Lauded as one of the biggest and most important projects in Florida to date, the controversial CSX Integrated Logistics Center project in Winter Haven, FL promised to bring nearly 8,500 jobs to our area.  I love this city, and can't imagine living anywhere else.  However, I am becoming more and more disheartened with this CSX project  - as the promise of a new day for jobs in Winter Haven, Florida are, in light of the economy and gas prices, seeming to fade prematurely into distant memory. Chuck Welch and Billy Townsend are two of Polk County's most astute writers, and they've done much to enlighten me and my readers about the true impacts - occupational and societal - this CSX hub project may have in store for Winter Haven and Polk County as a whole. Jobs Impact Comments left by Chuck ...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
On Thursday December 4, 2008 the Department of Community Affairs Secretary Thomas Pelham approved the development order and agreement for the controversial CSX Integrated Logistics Center - a 318 acre state-of-the art facility designed to facilitate transfer of containerized consumer goods via rail and truck.  Barring any further appeal, it looks like construction will begin sometime in 2009. If this project sounds big, it is.  In fact, some State officials are calling it "The Mother of All Rail Yards." The city of Winter Haven signed a deal in September 2007 with the company and sold CSX the land for $22,000 per acre.  CSX also has the option to purchase 930 acres adjacent to its currently planned site. Some here in Winter Haven are relatively happy with this latest stage of approval, ...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Today is "Black Friday." This is the day when shoppers get up at the butt crack of dawn (I'd bet there was a bit of parking lot camping going on last night, too) to take advantage of "door buster" sales and cherry pick the very best bargains. By Black Friday, the Holiday Season is going at full bore.  The voices of "Dino, Bing, and Burl" start playing steadily on the radio and the malls are solidly busy. The origin of the name "Black Friday" is often tied to the incontrovertible fact that the heavy shopping day after Thanksgiving is when several shops are thought to become profitable. Companies once recorded losses in red ink and gains in black, a practice that lives on in modern accounting software, hence the name "Black Friday." However, workers of retail outlets have for years used t...
Comments 2
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
  Title Track for This Post:  Gasoline by Audioslavevia Blip.fm (right click, open in new window)   This post is really just a quick follow up to a recent post on gas prices here in Winter Haven, FL.  At the time of that post, prices were hovering at around $1.96 per gallon.  We're now down to $1.82, which is great!  However, there are still those pesky Active Rain bloggers in places like Lubbock, TX where prices for regular unleaded are now down to just above $1.50!  Sorry Jeff and Lisa Sellers - had to call you out... if for no other reason than pure envy!  "Gas-Watch" Sighting... For those of you who tend to fall into the news junkie camp, you know - you like to track trends and what not... I found that Automotive.com does a pretty good job of keeping tabs on the latest gas prices. ...
Comments 0
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
Officially known as "The Chain of Lakes City," Winter Haven, FL is considered the water skiing capital of the world. Water Skiing, fishing, swimming, or simply spending a lazy Sunday afternoon cruising the canals that link each of the 16 lakes in the chain, Winter Haven is a boater's paradise.Water skiing is both a sport and a business in Winter Haven and is enjoyed on many lakes. World champion barefoot skier, Ron Scarpa, operates a barefoot skiing school on the chain.Any spot in Winter Haven is within a few steps of a freshwater lake or canal. Fishing is a serious pursuit and serious fun here.  The City's Origins The city's origins date back as far as 1884, and a year later it received it's name - thanks to Mr. P.D. Eycleshimer, one of the area's first farmers of consequence, who dub...
Comments 2
By Jay Prock
(Coldwell Banker)
Hello great online world of active rain and fellow realestate professionals. This is not only my first blog on active rain but my first blog in general. Why so far behind you might ask? Well, Ive got news for you, not everyone has jumped on the interenet band wagon! I know, I know, to most of us (including myself) cant go a day without checking email or making sure the latest tweet status hasnt changed or that I havent received an email that just CANT wait. But here in Winter Haven FL, the "citrus capital of the world" (which is not true by the way, Brazil has been outproducing the US for years) people just dont seem to dig the internet vibe quite as much. So what is my point? The point is I want to be proven wrong. I would love to receive contact, even if it is just a quick hello, to p...
Comments 3
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
We all have them... those moments - or days - even weeks - when you just can't get a certain song out of your head.  More often than not, it's a song that ranks among the worst you've ever heard.  Not sure why this is, but it's like the Devil got up before you did, snuck into your room, and Super Glued (TM) his own special version of the Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones onto your noggin!  Here are three songs I never EVER want to hear again - in no specific order.  Let's see if you agree...           Submission Number 1:  MmmBop! - by Hanson   I know they're all grown up, and I should be able to get past the memories of this blasted song being overplayed first in London (I lived there during the summer of 1996) and then when I returned home to the US.  Honestly, the song isn't bad, and th...
Comments 15
By Kevin Sandridge, Winter Haven Mortgage Broker
(Signature Home Funding)
This year's Annual Winter Haven, FL Festival of Trees has moved from its usual Citrus Dome location and instead will be held at Winter Haven Airport's new 13,000 square foot terminal on the northern end of Gilbert Field adjacent to US 92. Sponsored by the Ridge Art Association, this year's event will be held on Thursday December 4th, at 7:00 PM.  Food will be provided by Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Richard’s Cafe', with all proceeds from the $50.00 per person entry fee going to the Association. Please see this informative article written by the News Chief's Andrea Clacano Cruz for more information on this very special event.                   Photo Credits: The Lakeland Ledger, Destination Winter Haven       As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  Thanks for stopping by!    ...
Comments 0