Florida Real Estate Blog

Surveys identify your property corners and confirms the legal description of your land. If you will add any structures to your home you will need an official survey(not a copy). It will be provided to your County building division for a building permit it may also be needed with your Home Owners association. Yes this will be needed even if you just want to place a shed or a fence in your back yard.

It will also save you major headaches if there is a fence currently around your home. You will want to know who owns what part of the fence ( it will help clarify when it is time to replace the fence). We suggest you take digital photos of each corner with the flag in place. The flag identifies where the Rebarb is buried. That is your actual corner, usually about 3 to 6” below ground level. So the photo will remind you where to start digging.

So the Title Company or the Lawyer handling your closing will be asking you if you want a survey done. Normally you have no choice your lender will require it. If they do not (check with them first) we still recommend you do it. It will also identify if you are in a Flood Zone or not.

Yes it is a home but the state does not treat it as such. When you buy one you get a Title (like when you purchased a car). If you have a double wide which many are, you will get two titles and if you own the land then you will get a deed for that. You will also need to know the VIN number (vehicle identification number) as your insurer will want that and the name of the manufacturer. If you can find out when the home was moved to this location. It can save you on the depth of inspections you will need to have done. Florida has a Statue for the tying down of these homes it is 320.8325 and the installation standards are on the SunBiz.org site it is 15C-1.0104.

Lenders are very tough to come by on older Manufactured Homes so be prepared to go all cash. Insurance is also a chore. Currently hear in July 2010 Citizens and AARP are the only two companies writing insurance on these homes.

Inspections are treated differently. Only Companies that Install them can inspect them so your normal home inspector is not going to work. The good news is the state has a list of all the Licensed Installers at their site. Just Google “Florida Mobile Home Installers”

It depends on which county you are in. First check with your Real Estate agent they should be able to get you the name and number of the utilities companies. Verify if

You have gas heat or hot water as that can be propane or city gas. Some companies require you to bring your closing document (HUD1 legal size document you signed 8 different copies). You will want this order place 3 to 5 days before closing to assure you are not without utilities over the weekend.

Here is why, we just closed 3 homes this past week and in reviewing the closing documents (we get to see them at the closing table or just before) it reminded me why I always harp that buyers must get a second opinion and recommend at least 3 opinions.

Of those 3 loans we just closed buyer number 1 did shop his loan and paid $750 or 0.59% of the loan amount. Buyer 2 did also and paid $1,560 which was 1% of the loan amount. While buyer 3 had a friend recommend person and paid $3,187 or 1.59% . Please shop

your loan, buyer 3 over paid by $2,437. Another thing to stay away from is buying down your rate. It is strictly a way for them to increase their commissions.

I see this happen far too much yet at times I feel like a buyer will think I am steering them to some loan officer. That is not my intent as we have at least 5 companies on our web site. One thing I can guarantee you. Buyer 3’s Loan provider will not be there.

It is a match where players of different capabilites play using a modified Stabelford scoring system. The tweek we have on a modified system is we incorporate negative scoring for triple bogies. We also adjust “points to pull” based on your last outing so for every 3 points positive or negative you adjust you points to pull by 1 or -1 if you are negative.

i.e. if you where positive 9 you would have to pull 3 more points than you had to in the last outing. Or if you had 18 to pull in this outing and you only pulled 12. The next outing you would only have to pull 16.

It does require you to continue to play better to maintain your lead.

Modified Stabelford read more at this site.

http://golf.about.com/od/beginners/a/stablefordintro.htm

The 2010 Champion is Jim Ruddy, the final match of the 12 match series was completed June 23^rd at Mission Inn’s tough El Campeon track. Jrudd(jr) had an advantage on the rest of the field as he played here back in 1999. Lou Buttice(lb) was 4 back of jr going into the match so they went off first. The first three holes were a battle with lb out in front by one but by the time they made the turn jr was up by 4. Lb is long and has a great 3 wood so he expected to make it interesting coming home but the flat stick let him down. He rolled it close all day but jr would match hole by hole until the 16^th where lb picked up 2 points and jr recorded none. So on to the number 1 handicap hole on the course a long 5 par with a tree in the middle of the fairway just 100 yards from the green. Oh, did I say it also has a pond in front of the green from 50 yards in… Both hit good drives jr about 30 yards behind lb (all day) hit 2^nd to 190 where he laid up to 80 yards, on the green and recorded bogie. Lb hit 2^nd to 180 and then flew the tree to deep rough on the right side of the green, he chipped up and 2 putted for bogie. That was it, on to 18^th were lb choose to be Tin Cup and attack the water and we both putted for nothing.

Meanwhile the 3 ballers behind us had a battle between 4^th an 5^th place. It is amazing that our previous 2 champions have gone from first to last in their next CW. That is what happened today as Gary Dechellis slid into 5^th because of some very fine putting by none other than Charlie Williams. Greg Mann stayed steady in his 3^rd postion for the 12 match series but was hindered today by business on the phone. It will kill any attempt at a good round. So we are off for 2 months and then the CW Lite begins. Looking for 3 more players. If you are one or know one please share the previous blog and then contact us.

Note to all: a 12 event allows for each contestant to choose the field. It has been in the past you chose your home course. Lou strategically trailing Jim by 4 chose what he

felt would be a great test of ball flight over water. Not a bad move but we liked the event so much we may make it the finishing course for all future Championships. OBTW JR gave up only one negative the entire day. That being on the first hole. I can just hear

Lou as he and JR walked off the first green (YESSSS).

It is a 12 match golf contest where players of different capabilites play using a modified Stabelford scoring system. It usually runs from January to June with a CW Lite (6 matches) in the fall. The tweek we have on a modified system is we incorporate negative scoring for triple bogies. We also adjust “points to pull” based on your last outing. i.e. if you where positive 9 you would have to pull 3 more points than you had to in the last outing. It does require you to continue to play better to maintain your lead.

Modified Stabelford read more at this site.

http://golf.about.com/od/beginners/a/stablefordintro.htm

Seen below is the group just before the final match at Mission Inn at Howey in the Hills Florida. Left to right Chuck Williams CEO/Founder, Lou Buttice, Jim Ruddy, Gary Dechellis and Greg Mann.

Go to Sunbiz.com and do a name search. It will identify who is the hoa officers or management company. Also print out the most recent Annual Report.

Google the management company for their phone number

and they will send you the state approved questionnaire to your email.

If you want to find our how many court cases have been filed to clerk of courts and input the hoa name

Go to mls and ck all short sales. They may not be in Lis pendens(suit pending) yet.

We have heard folks say they are not worth the paper they are printed on. Yet we see time and time again how they save sellers money and help get the home closed. Currently it seems that 80% of the offers are asking for a warranty and the nice thing I like about some of them, is that you can also protect the Seller during the listing period. This is very helpful if the seller is out of town and the warranty company only uses licensed and insured contractors. It also limits the out of pocket money the seller needs to come up with. We even had a case where a complete air handler had to be ordered a week before closing it was not going to be installed until the following week. The closing went forward since the Warranty Company had the responsibility to complete the job.