College debt is a huge topic that is not spoken about as much as it should be. Each year, thousands of students graduate from college with a degree, but they get stuck with a huge student loan debt. This debt takes years to pay off and can often affect a person's ability to purchase a home. In Central Florida, we see this problem all the time with graduates from schools like the University of Central Florida.

Last year, we hit an all-time low for first-time home buyers mainly because they could not qualify for a loan. When talking to a lender about getting qualified to purchase a home, the lenders have to account for the college debt in their debt-to-income ratio. This stops many people from qualifying for a home loan and is a huge problem for first-time home buyers. As a result of not getting qualified to purchase a home, people often end up renting for longer periods of time or staying with family. 

The good news is that companies, such as Fannie Mae, have an option for the first-time home buyer! If someone is paying off the college debt for the loan applicant (like their parents), the lender does not have to account for the college debt. As long as the proper documentation is presented to show that the debt is being paid off by a third party consistently, the lender will not include it in the debt to income ratio. This gives the applicant a higher chance of getting approved to purchase that new home and is great news for any Central Florida graduate!

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

When someone is looking to sell their house and by a new one, they often do not know what they should do first. Should they buy before they sell their home, or should they sell their home and then buy?  Their biggest fear when wanting to buy and sell at the same time is that they don't want to sell too quickly and end up homeless or having to move twice. This is a tricky question that often plagues the Orlando real estate market.

Many people believe that they should find the home they would like to purchase first and get it under contract before they put their house up for sale. The Orlando market is currently a seller's market, which means inventory is low and sellers have more options with a greater chance for multiple offers. If buying a home is contingent upon whether or not you sell your home, sellers are more than likely going to go with someone who is ready to buy immediately. This will cause you to lose leverage, and your options will be very limited.

Our team of REALTORs have been in the business for eleven years and have helped many people who want to buy and sell their home at the same time. As a result, we have put together a 5-Step Cheat Sheet:

• Step 1: Start looking at houses. You should be making a list of your top three choices.
• Step 2: Put your house on the market. Find a REALTOR who can help you price your home appropriately and get your house in top showing condition.
• Step 3: Once you get an offer, you want to negotiate the close date. This is important so you have plenty of time to start the buying process.
• Step 4: Put an offer in on a house you would like to buy. Revisit your top 3 houses and see what is still available to put an offer in.
• Step 5: You will want to set up the close dates and times for buying your new home and selling your old home within a couple days of each other. This will help the transaction go through smoothly with a little less stress. 

This process allows you to keep leverage on the buying side and will end up saving you money by allowing your house to sell for top dollar!

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

Some new real estate statistics were just released for the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, and they give us data collected during the past month that could predict future property owners trends. Currently, the inventory of homes in Orlando, Florida, is extremely low, and we are in a strong seller's market.  

With the inventory so low in Orlando, if you are buying a home, it can be hard to find a house depending on the desired neighborhood and your budget. For budgets below $300,000, there are even slimmer options, and it is crucial to team up with a REALTOR (in particular, a Buyer's Specialist, which I spoke about in my previous video blog) to help you find a home to buy.

Even though the inventory of homes is low in Orlando, sales are up 12% compared to this time last year. With the recent increase in interest rates, many potential buyers are being more decisive and making the move. The demand is also strong because the Orlando economy is doing very well and there is a lot of job growth in Central Florida, which leads to more people buying homes.

Another important statistic is that the median price for single-family homes is 11% higher than it was in 2016, and it is 88% higher than it was in July 2011. This is due to a higher demand, which means higher prices. With this in mind, if you are thinking about selling your house, this would be the best time to sell; with such a low amount of inventory, there will be less competition for you. You also will have more leverage in the negotiation process so you can get your self the best deal!

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

Today, the Orlando real estate market is a very strong seller's market! The inventory is low, and the homes that are for sale are very limited in the market. If you are currently looking at to buy a home without a REALTOR, you may be making a big mistake. When you use a REALTOR to buy a home, it does not cost you anything and is free because the seller is paying their commission. Working with a REALTOR will help you find a property in today's market, negotiate the contract for you, keep the deal together, etc.

After you have made the decision to use a REALTOR, you need to find a REALTOR who is a Buyer Specialist. This is someone who works specifically with buyers and knows the inventory listed on the market very well. After they have an idea of what you are looking for in a future house, they will show you the homes that match your interest and budget. This will save you lots of time and money.

When buying a home, you may also want to work with a buyer specialist who is part of a team; if they work with a listing specialist, they will have access to pocket listings. These are listings that are not on MLS yet, so the other 12,000 realtors and buyers don't have knowledge of them. This gives you an advantage in the Orlando real estate market.

If you are in the process of looking to buy a new home, our team specializes in both buyer and listing specialists, and we can help you find the home of your dreams within your budget. Our Buyer Specialists are inventory experts in Central Florida, and they can show you properties that did not hit the market yet.

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

As a home seller in Orlando, Florida, you always want to get the best price for your house. Right now, the Orlando real estate market is in a seller’s market, which means that the inventory of homes is low and that there are a lot of buyers searching for properties.

So when you get multiple offers on your home when you're selling, what are your options?

Your first option is to try to negotiate with the first offer, and if you can't come to an agreement, you should start to negotiate with your second offer. From my experience, this approach works; however, from what I have found in the central Florida housing market, it's always best to ask for the buyers to come back with their best and final offers. Think about it this way: If you're the buyer and you love this house, you are going to put your best foot forward because you don't know what other buyers will come back with. If every potential buyer does this, it ensures that the seller will almost always get the best price and terms which they are looking for.

Something else that your REALTOR can do for you is that when they ask for the buyers' best and final offers, they can let the buyers know what's important to the sellers. This can be things such as a high escrow, short inspection period, waive appraisal contingency, etc. This ensures that when the offers come back, they could match what the sellers are wanting in their contract.

Once you get your house under contract, you can still continue to use the leverage you have throughout the closing process. If something pops up in the inspection report that the buyers want to be fixed, you can lean on the fact that you have other buyers wanting to purchase your house as well. This leverage gives you better positioning during the negotiation process.

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

In central Florida real estate, a common question that I often get asked is, "Should I price my house higher than market value so that I have room to negotiate?" 

The answer is, "No, you should not!"

In order to understand why, you have to understand how Orlando MLS works. When buyer specialists are working with buyers, they put them on an automated e-mail notification system via the Orlando MLS, which will send them an e-mail when a house comes onto the market that matches their requirements. So when you first put your house on the market, hundreds and hundreds of e-mails are set up to potential buyers who want a house just like yours, in your area of town, and in a certain price range. With that being said, it is so important that you have your house priced right from the very beginning because if you don't, you will be missing out on potential buyers. You see, if your house is just $1 over the criteria that were set by the potential buyer, they will NOT see your house pop up. Therefore, your house will not be visible to the buyers who are looking for a house just like yours.

Another thing to keep in mind is that 90% of buyers work with REALTORS to help them find a house to purchase. Whenever a buyer finds a house they want to buy, before they make an offer, the agent will do a market analysis of the property to let them know if the house is priced right, if it's underpriced, or if it's overpriced. If your house is overpriced, it will not get any offers! You see, if you were a buyer and your REALTOR was telling you that the house you wanted to purchase was overpriced, you wouldn't want to waste your time trying to convince the sellers that their home is overpriced when there were other homes to look at. 

Now, this doesn't mean that you have to cheaply give your house away; however, you do need to price it right in order to drive the traffic through the front door. The more demand you have on your house, the higher it will sell for -- and I'm sure that it what you want! Studies show that overpriced homes take twice as long to sell, and they sell for 6% less. So price your house right from the beginning so you can get it sold for top dollar!

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

In central Florida, if you are an AirBnb host and you currently have a renter, you may risk the possibility of voiding your homestead on your home. For those of you who are unfamiliar with AirBnb, it is a website where you can find people who will rent out a room in their house -- or their entire house -- for a person to stay. This has become the new alternative instead of staying in a hotel for many travelers around the world, and even fairly popular in the Orlando area.

Now that we know what AirBnB is, let's talk about homestead exemptions. As it sounds, a homestead exemption is where you can claim your primary residence as your homestead to get an exemption. This gives you a credit of $50,000 off of your assessed value, which means that your property taxes would be higher without it.

Recently, a new property appraiser for the city of Miami informed the public that if you are a person who rents out your home on AirBnB, you could be creating homestead fraud. Under the homestead act, you can not rent out your house for more than 30 days for 2 years, and if you are doing it for more than 30 days, you should not be declaring homestead exemption. The penalties, if you are caught doing this, would result in you possibly losing your homestead exemption, plus a 50% penalty and 50% interest. 

Since AirBNB is still fairly new, the government agencies haven't officially released a stance on this concern. There are folks within the government who would like to allow this; however, they would require the tenants to pay a lodging tax just like they would if they stayed in a hotel. Then, there are those that don't want to allow it because they feel that it would be disturbing the neighborhood. Regardless of what they decide, it is important that you know the laws and rules in your central Florida area to avoid complications that could result in severe penalties!

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

For many people, especially in central Florida, their biggest financial asset is their home. As a homeowner, there may be many reasons why you would want to know the value of your Orlando home. You may want to know how much equity in the house so you can pull some money out if you want to build a pool. You may want to know if you are still underwater and owe more than your house is worth. Or, you may just be curious and want to know the value of your home. Whatever the reason is, for most Floridians, it is important that they get the most accurate value for their house.

Since it provides a lot of information about the history of the house and the neighborhood, using Zillow has become very popular in Orlando over the last few years. However, when it comes to providing you with an accurate value, Zillow may not be the best resource. Zillow is a computer-based application that takes raw data and just crunches numbers! At times it may be accurate; however, in most instances, it's way off the mark.  

One of the main reasons that Zillow is not able to provide the most accurate analysis to your home is because it doesn't have the capability to make the appropriate amount of adjustments when comparing properties. Since Zillow only crunches numbers, it's not going to know what updates a house has compared to another. Without these adjustments, their price could be $100,000 off of what the true value may be.

If you are looking for a more accurate way of understanding the value of your house, you should have a professional REALTOR stop by to help you out. They can come by the house and get a feel for the condition of the property as well as the upgrades. This will then allow them to make the appropriate adjustment on how your house compares to the other comparable properties. This will provide you with a more accurate value of your property then what you would receive from Zillow.

When you have a REALTOR come by to assess the value for you, make sure that you have a REALTOR who has the experience and expertise to do a proper assessment for you. If the agent just shows you what properties have sold nearby and then throws out a number to you with no supporting documentation, we suggest that you get another REALTOR in the central Florida area.

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

In this video blog, you will get "Real Estate Smart!" I will be talking about a closing cost that not a lot of people are familiar with called the "estoppel fee."

An estoppel fee is a fee charged by the homeowners association to the title company in order for them to determine the status of your account. They will determine if you are current and on-track, if you are behind, or if there are any special assessments that are due by the seller. This information has to be known prior to a closing so it can be taken care of during the closing.

In the past in Orlando real estate, estoppel fees used to appear on the closing statement as a separate line item; however, over the past three years, this has changed. In part, it has changed because more homeowners associations have increased the price of their estoppel fee from $100 all the way up to $650. They also are starting to charge additional fees for an expedited request or, if it has to be done again, upon expiration. Since the cost has gone up and the title company would still be responsible for these fees, if it doesn't close, then the title companies are now getting the seller's credit card information in advance and having them pay for it when it is requested from the HOA.   

Since the HOAs have turned this into a stream of revenue for them, there is currently a bill that is being drafted for the state of Florida that would place some restrictions on them. First of all, the most they could charge would be $100, and if an expedite is needed, it would only be an additional $50. The estoppel letter would also be good for 30 days rather than expiring on the expected close date. So, if a closing is pushed back, the seller would not have to pay another estoppel fee.

Knowing what you are going to walk away at the closing table is typically one of the most important things to sellers. So, before you list your Orlando home with a REALTOR, make sure that they provide you what's called a "net sheet." This sheet will provide the estimated amount of closing cost you would occur at a certain price point, making it easier and more straight-forward to sell your house!

As always, we are here to help you! Please feel free to Contact Us, and I hope that I have helped you get real estate smart.

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.

I’m sure many have heard the phrase “buy low, sell high.” This phrase is typically used in the stock market; however, it also can be used in the Orlando real estate market. Like anyone, if you were buying a house, you would want to buy it when the prices are low, and if you wanted to sell your house, you would want to sell it when the market is at its peak.  However, I will tell you that waiting for the central Florida market to peak is not the best strategy!

In Orlando real estate, like any other industry, the market is controlled by supply and demand. The supply represents the number of homes that are currently for sale within a given market, and the demand represents the number of buyers who are in the market to purchase a home.  As a seller, you always want to sell your house when the inventory of homes is low and when the number of buyers is high. The best time to find this scenario is right before the peak of the market. This is because when the inventory of homes is low, it typically means that it’s a seller's market. So, as a buyer, you have fewer homes to choose from, and as a seller, that gives you more leverage in the negotiation process.

You also find that right before the peak, the numbers of buyer who are in the market are fairly high because everyone is trying to buy a home before the prices of homes go any higher. With lots of buyers, you can typically sell your house for more money than you would if there were fewer buyers searching for a home.

If you wait until the peak, you typically find out after the peak was already met and the market has already shifted. Inventory typically starts to swell, which means that the buyers have more homes to look at; this can reduce your leverage as a seller. This is also when the market typically flips from a seller's market to a buyer's market. Additionally, after the peak of the market, the number of buyers goes down.

So, as you can see, the best time to sell your house is typically right before the peak of the Orlando market. This will give you the best opportunity to get your house sold for top dollar and within a shorter period of time.

For more information on this or if you need trusted realtors to represent you, feel free to Contact Us, and we would be more than happy to assist you. "Get Real Estate Smart" with The Millers!

The Miller Realty Group is a successful real estate team who provides real estate solutions for residential homeowners in the metro Orlando real estate market, including Lake Mary, Longwood, Heathrow, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Maitland, and surrounding cities. Founded in 2006, The Miller Realty Group has transformed themselves into one of the top real estate teams in Central Florida.