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by Rodney Taber, Broker/Owner of myHomeSphere.com realty

…are more complex (pun intended!) and simpler at the same time. If you’re trying to decide between living in a house or a condominium know thee the following:

House living is much more autonomous, private, and labor-intensive. Houses generally appreciate better than condos. Houses are cool.

Condos are cool, too, if you’re downsizing or want shared amenities otherwise unaffordable. Then there are condos only a Vanderbilt could afford, and if you have to ask…

Maybe the kids have finally moved away (they’ll be back!) and you’re ready to stop spending your weekends landscaping. You like the idea of having a large pool, hot tub, and clubhouse somebody else maintains and you use! Condo communities can be amenity-rich, and active too with group activities.

Royal Stewart Arms by Honeymoon Island is a well-kept secret and wonderful, with broad, unspoiled water views, and is 55 and over. Mediteranean Manors nearby has it’s own park with picnic tables and grills on it’s own private stretch of beach, and is NOT 55 and over. The condos at The Madison at Soho in South Tampa are completely, beautifully modern and metropolitan. The new Island View project in downtown Clearwater will be simply AWESOME. The Grand Bellagio is a resort, with concierge, kayaks, paved waterside walking trail, docks, massage facility, fitness center, resort pool, cabanas, on and on and on!

You will have a monthly maintenance fee that is usually based on your units’ square footage, and in proportion to the number and quality of amenities. Plan to pay from $150 through $300 per month, but read the fine print… This usually includes lawn, insurance, reserves, maintenance, and sometimes includes security, water/sewer, and even cable. So you’d pay for these things or do them yourself in a house anyway.

The absolute worst part of condominiums is usually parking. Very often owners get one (1, uno) parking space, and your husband gets to hike across the complex in a hurry to snatch one of the guest spots before anyone else does.

The word itself means ‘joint ownership’ and comes from [Latin com- together + dominion rule].

When you buy a condo it’s a bit more complicated but nothing to worry about. A fat set of documents that includes rules and financial statements must be provided to you, and if you don’t like any part of it, you have 3 days to cancel your contract and get your bread back by Florida law. You get your money back, too.

Often the Association must approve your purchase, and I’ve seen this process range from filling in a form and paying a $50 fee to a full-blown interrogation – but the latter is rare.

Condo Associations range from being a very sane group of grown-ups who want to enjoy life and protect the value of the complex, to a group of fascists who make Big Brother look like a girl-scout, so ask around before you buy.

Better yet, hire a friendly, reasonably intelligent real estate broker who just started a new, progressive company called myHomeSphere.com to do the dirty work for you, and all for free when you’re a Buyer!

by Rodney Taber, Broker/Owner of myHomeSphere.com realty

When you look at a property listing and want to know what the "taxes are," the figure on the listing can be very deceptive or confusing because it is simply the taxes that were last billed to the homeowner, and will disclose for what year (2005, 2006) the taxes were last billed.

The Florida Homestead Exemption and Save Our Homes Cap create different taxes for like properties in that when one claims a property as his/her primary residence, he/she is entitled to a reduction of taxes (exemption), and a limit to the future growth of property taxes.

The Homestead Exemption removes $25,000 of "assessed value" - which can be very different from "market value." Let's say the market value of a home is $200,000, because a consumer is willing to pay that much given his choices, etc. While that's what you may actually pay, you will be assessed generally LOWER, as the County Appraiser assesses home based on values from 2 to 3 years ago.

I used to (notice, "used to") take the market value and multiply by about 75% to arrive at a shotgun assessed value, or about $150,000. You then take the "millage rate" (tax rate, from Latin mille, or thousand) of say 23 mills (roughly Pinellas County's current millage rate) and multiply it by the assessed value and you get the annual taxes. So $150,000 x .023 = $3,450, or $287.50 per month. Property taxes are "ad valorem" or "according to value," and "pain in the rear" - um, I mean "paid in arrears" or for the last year, billed in November for the state of the property last January.

The last sentence above explains why you have until the end of March - well into the year - to file Homestead Exemption for THAT year.

Now, you can easily see how removing/exempting $25,000 from the assessed value would lower one's taxes from that $150,000 to $125,000 and you would pay less tax. That's how Homestead Exemption works.

The Save Our Homes Cap is much more significant in my opinion. Once Homestead is filed for a property, this CAP kicks in and the ASSESSED VALUE for tax purposes, as a primary residence, can not increase more than 3% or the equivalent of the Consumer Price Index (rate of inflation) each year, whichever is less. So, as a property increases in market value at say 10% per year, the tax-base is only growing 3%. So after 15 years the homeowner may only pay $500 in taxes while his neighbor who just moved in pays $5,000!

Many people, years ago, were OPPOSED to the creation of these tax laws as they were predicted to grow into the problem we face today ("the train wreck has happened") of completely disparate taxes on like properties. It seems while a boon to a long-term resident, more and more second-home buyers and vacation-home buyers will be discouraged from coming here by having to take on the lion's share of tax-burden. This is why some tax proposals may sound nice if you're a long-term resident, but hurt your business and the local economy if the proposal does not take the whole economic picture into account.

by Rodney Taber, Broker/Owner of myHomeSphere.com realty

(In response to the comment posted by Jenny Esno, Broker/Owner of First Continental Mortgage, 727-530-1424)

Great idea! Just different. The first thing I think of is the availability of very, very affordable condos. I think a condo is a great way to start and an awesome alternative to renting.

A friend of mine has listed with me a picture-perfect NEW condo right in Clearwater for just $124,900! It's in an upscale building with very modern amenities and design - very CHIC! Pool, workout facility, close to beaches, modern design, view of a lake! You can't really buy that quality of home for that price until you move further away, say to Holiday in Pasco County. 

In certain price ranges and for certain clients it could be a toss up we'd discuss on a case-by case basis.

Some more established Buyers prefer condos as they don't live here regularly or just prefer not to be directly responsible for maintenance.

And I do find, however, that most first-time buyers who currently live in an apartment, have the dream of buying a house, with its own space, and the autonomy not found in the shared living of condos.

What's more, as there are a TON of homes available right now, there are even MORE condos per Buyer than houses! So THIS is the time to "make your best deal." A client and I found a waterfront condo complex in Gulfport, made three offers simultaneously and went with the most motivated Seller, for around $150,000, waterfront, 2 bedrooms, etc.

The monthly maintenance is a big factor - some have escalated to be actually prohibitive due to tax and insurance. A "land lease" or "co-op" type ownership could be a problem with lending. A careful review of rules (pets, types of vehicles allowed) should be done before you go visit. Did you know you don't necessarily have to be 55 or older to buy in a "55+" community?

Thanks for the comment!

by Rodney Taber, Broker/Owner of myHomeSphere.com realty

If you have a question about ANYTHING real estate or related to the Tampa Bay area please feel free to email me at info@myHomeSphere.com. It helps me identify what people would like to know about, and it could turn into a great blog topic! - Yours, Rodney

by Rodney Taber, Broker/Owner of myHomeSphere.com realty

Join the club! The best description of the change in the market we've undergone in the Pinellas County area is this: Two years ago there were 2 Buyers for every 3 houses for sale, and now (May 2007) there is ONE Buyer for every 20 available houses ON THE MLS! That factoid does not include FSBO's (for-sale-by-owners).

Simply, we've gone from a Seller's market to a Buyer's market and both have their characteristics.

So what to do if your home is not selling? If you're already listed here are some key tips: (1) Ask your agent how much of a commission is being offered to BUYER'S AGENTS. I have made a small study myself that suggests - for better or worse - listings that offer 3% to Buyer's Agents simply sell faster than listings that offer 2.5%, which sell faster than those offering 2%. If you offered 4% do you think a Buyer's Agent would move heaven and earth to make sure your listing GOT SHOWN? If you offer 2% - no matter how fair - how excited will an agent be to show it when there are plenty of others offering 50% more compensation?

Keep in mind there are TONS of homes to be shown - tons of choices for consumers. (2) Your home must stand out and be priced BELOW the competition. If you over-priced two years ago it may have added weeks to your sale, but today it can add many months or in excess of a year, etc!

(3) Your listing should include the maximum number of becoming pictures. The Pinellas MLS can hold 10 pictures and Realtor.com either one or six. But just as important, if a picture is questionable or unattractive - DO NOT use it! Pretend you're a Buyer scrolling through tons of listings on a computer. It becomes very tempting to rule a home OUT by an unattractive picture. Your job in a listing is not to sell the house, but to get the prospect to come look!

(4) Really take advantage of the PUBLIC MARKETING REMARKS and include whatever keywords are appropriate. This is your chance to communicate colorfully about the property amongst all those details, and often a REALTOR will search for homes by keyword in the Remarks. For example, if the house has a detached apartment, I always work in the following words smoothly somehow: cottage, mother-in-law, detached, rental, apartment, guest house, office, bonus room, workshop, etc. And if you're walking distance to the beach be sure to include words like: walk, beach, minutes, etc.

(5) Good price-points are the ones that buyers use as search limits. If you're priced at $254,000, for example, really consider lowering to $250,000, and resist the temptation to price psychologically lower at $249,900 at first. At $250,000 the home will get more exposure as people searching from $250,000 and up will also find it.

(6) Lower your price incrementally. After you've been on the market a while, if you don't want to make a drastic price reduction, lower your price even if it's a dollar once in a while, especially on Friday morning as that's when many start to prepare for the weekend outings. If a listing undergoes a price change it should come up as a "Price Reduced" listing and automatically alert many house-hunters via email.

There are many, many other "guerilla" tactics that just might make the difference. Oh, yes, here's another: (7) Sign short listing agreements! I mean like 3 or 4 months. Your Realtor may tell you that's just not long enough (and he's probably right), but there are two good reasons for this - A, you don't want to be locked in with an agent who turns out to be not aggressive enough in this hard-work market, and if he/she is you can always re-list after 3 months. And B, your listing will look like a real "wounded sheep" of the herd if it's been on the market say 167 days! Believe me, people either won't look because "something must be wrong - it must be over-priced" (even if you've lowered your price), or the wolves will move in for the kill, assuming you must surely be desperate by now!

Here's another great tip - Consider renting for cash flow until the adjusting market blows over.

And another - If it's a multi-family property you're selling MARKET IT COMMERCIALLY. I mean prepare an Operating Statement. Get it cleaned up and rented for more than before and the numbers can sell it (or you may want to keep it, now!)

And yet another - Call me! I am not telling you to dump your current agent if you're listed now, but you and he or she can incorporate some of these ideas. If you'r not yet on the market, or if your listing has expired, however, dial 727-458-6194 and let's get your situation SOLVED!