It’s nice to see that Zillow recently saw fit to proclaim, in its 2022 real estate market predictions, that “the Sun Belt dominates Zillow’s list of hottest housing markets for the second year in a row.” At the top of that list? Tampa and Jacksonville.
Now, those of us who live in Florida have always known it’s a natural real estate, er…hot spot! But, especially after weeks and months of reading the doom and gloom of the impending decline of the refinance spike; rise of interest rates and shortage of inventory, it’s nice to put it all into perspective.
While it’s easy enough to aggregate numbers from numerous local markets to create some national numbers, there’s no true national market. Just a collection of local markets. So saying many trends will impact each market equally is much more often than not false. Will interest rates rise this year? Probably. But how much will they rise; how long will the rise take to impact each market and to what degree? Let’s not forget, home values have soared over the past three years. It’s not all that apparent that they will suddenly crash. Will appreciation slow? Yes. Are declining appreciation and depreciation the same thing? Absolutely not. In fact, the same Zillow forecast suggests the nation’s top 50 markets are expected to “grow healthily in 2022.” That doesn’t sound like a year of doom and gloom to us.
Now, back to Florida, where the vast majority of International Title Partners' clients, partners and friends live and work. The same forces that drove our largest markets to jaw-dropping growth in 2020 and 2021 are still in place. Home values will likely still grow. Inventory is still moving quickly, indicating demand remands high. And employment and population indicators suggest Florida’s top markets are still home to motivated, capable buyers with confidence in the job market and their earning potential. So whether the Fed raises the primary national rates by a quarter of a percent or .000001 percent (and believe us, it won’t be raising it enough to disrupt the economy dramatically in an election year), odds are that, if you have property or clients with property in Tampa or Jacksonville (or Miami, or Orlando, or Gainesville…), it will be another productive year for our friends in the real estate business.
We’re ready for the volume here at International Title Partners. And we’ve only continued to work at streamlining our processes to create the smoothest, fastest, most tension-free closings you could ask for in a purchase environment. Then again, we’re proud of the places we live and work, and we never bet against them. So Zillow’s just telling us what we already knew!
In some markets, it may not yet seem like it. But even as some lenders continue to ride the refinance wave, the forecasts for the coming year are fairly aligned in agreeing that the refinance boom will be receding soon. For some, it already has. For others, maybe in a month? Three months? Five months? Obviously, we don’t really know. But it seems likely that, barring some incredibly impactful and unexpected event, we’ll be doing much more purchase business in the coming year than we will be refinance.
The forecasts also agree that volume will be high again in 2022. The downside is that, like most boom markets, the mortgage and title industry expanded to meet the historic demand we saw in 2020 and 2021. That means there are more mouths to feed. And while the proverbial “pie” is still ample, it will be smaller than the giant feast we’ve been enjoying.
So what does that mean for you?
If you’re a REALTOR or loan officer, you already know what you need to be doing. You’re shoring up your relationships, scrubbing your leads and double-checking your CRM. A competitive purchase market is built upon leads, marketing and sales. But if you are a lender, you’re probably also becoming more and more aware that 2022 will likely be more expensive for lenders. “Margin compression” may end up being the phrase of the year, and with good reason. When volume is sky high and a product lends itself naturally to streamlined production processes, we don’t talk too much about margins. But the purchase transaction takes longer to close, comes with more complications and can be costlier to produce.
So, REALTORS and lenders, the service providers you choose on the title and closing side can make a difference in a purchase market as well. Turn time is a great example. If your provider helps shave a day or two (or three) off of the closing process because it’s already positioned for efficiencies, your closing process is that much shorter as well. Your staffs are more productive as they move on to the next file or next sale. And, as an added bonus, you’re likely to have a happier borrower on your hands when the closing process is smooth and quick. Can’t hurt the repeat or referral aspect of marketing, right?
For title companies and other service providers, now is also the time to revisit your production and service processes as well. How automated are you? Are there costly, way-too-manual elements to your workflow that require more labor than your margins can bear? Outsourcing has long been a Business 101 solution for shrinking margins for a reason. It works. Simply being able to eliminate some fixed expenses for a provider able to scale its services is a classic and effective way to relieve some of the margin pressure.
This isn’t the first posting we’ll do about the coming purchase market and it likely won’t be the last. But we haven’t truly seen a more-or-less nationwide purchase-dominant market in years. Here’s the best news. All indications are that the opportunity will be there. And a little competition never hurt, right? It’s time to get prepared and have a plan!
You’ve seen Instagram Reels and TikTok videos everywhere and might be thinking to yourself, "How do I even create one of these?" Don’t worry. Here is your step-by-step guide to creating your first Instagram Reel for your real estate business.
Step 1: Select the Audio
Click on the music note icon on the left-hand side to open Instagram’s audio selection. From there, you can search trending audios, audio categories, and your saved audios.
Step 2: Select the Length of Your Reel
Under the music note icon on the left, you’ll find the option to change the length of your reel. You can choose from 15, 30, or 60 seconds. All you have to do is click on it until you get your desired reel time.
Step 3: Choose an Effect
If you’d like to use any beauty, background, or lighting effects that you normally use in your stories, you can click the star icon on the left-hand side of your reel’s menu. Instagram will give you tons of options, including your already saved filters, as well as trending ones.
Step 4: Set the Timer
If you need a little time to get into position to do a viral dance or create a reel that incorporates a few different video segments, you can use the Timer/countdown option.
Once you click the timer icon on the left-hand side of the menu, you’ll find 2 countdown options of 3 or 10 seconds and notice a sliding scale where you can change the amount of time you want to record.
If you want to record multiple videos for your reel, slide the color bar to whichever spot you want to end that video segment. Next, select "set time." You can do this multiple times depending on the audio length and the length of the reel you selected. For example, if you selected 60 seconds, you could create six 10-second videos for that one reel.
Once you’ve set the timer, your Timer icon should show a white background on the main reel screen. Then, when you’re ready, hit the record button.
Congratulations on Creating Your Very First Reel!
Remember, the more you create in reels, the more comfortable you’ll get, and the more content you’ll create for your audience.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Want more inspiration or additional how-to’s for social media trends like this one? Let us know!
Welcome back to the second half of our two-part article on how to find and flip a home for fun and profit. Last time we talked about considering the two budgets needed for a flip project and how to find great homes to flip for beginners.
For those who do most of the renovations by hand rather than hiring contractors to take care of it for them, living in your flip is often an appealing option and could save you thousands on rent if you don’t already own another home nearby. It’s perfectly normal to live in a home you’re flipping and often this is the best way to get a feel for little repairs that need to be made to fix things like weak plumbing, old wiring, or simply improving the living environment of each room with minor inexpensive changes. Simply be careful not to fall through half-finished work when you wake up in the morning and have plans to move out when it’s time to stage and sell.
Standing in your new shabby house wondering what to change, it’s important to understand what modern home buyers are looking for. Primarily, they don’t want a home that looks like it was built in the 60s (even if it was). One of the most transformative changes you can make is to strip and replace those folksy little details that used to decorate old homes like wallpaper, cramped living areas, and brightly colored kitchen tiles with roosters and fruit painted on them. By replacing older features with sleek lines and muted colors, you can drastically change the impression of a home to make it seem much more modern.
Finally, the end of your flipping task is finding a new family who will enjoy living in the home you’ve transformed. Most flippers, having done the hard part, will hire a listing agent to help them stage the home, draw in buyers, host tours, and get a good price for all their hard work. For the most part, this is the right way to go but it’s also okay to flip with a buyer in mind as long as negotiations are fair and you get a good deal on the house for your investment, materials, and labor.
Home flipping is an incredibly fun way to invest, hone your home improvement skills, and make a new family very happy with your final product. For more helpful real estate tips, contact us today!
For most people, there are two reasons to buy a house. Either you want to live in it or you want to rent it for passive income. However, there’s a lot more to the housing market than meets the eye. Besides the teeming undercurrent of auctions, estate sales, private deals, and opportunism is a special part of the real estate ecosystem known as flipping. Flipping is a unique form of residential investment property ownership in which the buyers select one shabby house at a time to renovate and upgrade into a cozy modern home any family would be happy to live in.
What the flippers get out of the deal is the profits from buying an unwanted home at a low price and selling it for much more after renovations. The market, on the other hand, gets a steady supply of homes returning to the market after some time spent in disrepair. If you’re considering joining the noble (and profitable) project of home flipping, here are five useful tips to help you get started.
The first thing to remember when considering a flip is that you are planning to make a double investment. First, you will need to attain a mortgage for the home, something that may be challenging if the value of the property is too low. Second, most home flips require several thousand dollars in renovations before they’re fit to sell to a new family. Therefore you will either need to have the investment on-hand or obtain a private loan that will be paid back with some of your profits from the sale.
Your next challenge is to find a profitable flip. This is a more complex task than you may think. Your primary goal is to find homes that look bad on the outside but are still perfectly sturdy, secure, and weather-sealed otherwise. Shabby homes that have fallen into disrepair but have not yet begun to decay are usually your best bet. Keep an eye out for anything that mostly needs a little landscaping, a coat of paint, and a few basic repairs to experience the transformation from crummy to cozy. There are usually a few of these in every city just waiting to be returned to the housing market.
Flipping homes is an incredibly exciting investment, especially if you’re handy with a hammer and paintbrush and have an eye for potential in a rundown home. Want to see our other three tips? Join us next time for the second half of this two-part article where we’ll talk about the living situation, personal touches, and passing the flip on to a new owner. For more great real estate tips and tricks, contact us today!
Anyone who works in sales knows that the worst thing you can do is give a potential customer time to second-guess themselves. If you’ve given them your pitch, you’ve gotten them fired-up about the sale, and they find your terms acceptable,time has suddenly become your enemy. That little voice might creep into their heads and tell them to back out. Go look somewhere else. Shop around. Think this through. There might be a better deal out there, and you don’t want to make your decision too quickly if there is. What’s worse is that the bigger the purchase someone is making, the louder this little internal voice can get. So if someone is buying a house (or another piece of real estate that comes with an equally large price tag), it’s important to make sure you get through the process before your buyer can get cold feet and time can kill your deal.
If you’ve got someone on the line, and they’re interested in the house you’re selling, you don’t want to get pushy. On the other hand, you do want to close as quickly as is convenient for them, and you. For that reason, you need to be flexible, and you need to be willing to suggest definitive times and dates. As an example, if someone wants to buy, ask when they would like a move-in date. If they’re not sure, then offer the soonest date you’d be comfortable with in terms of moving your stuff out. Get them to commit, put it on paper, and sign it. Once their name is on the dotted line, and you’ve got a handshake, you’re good to go. The level of uncertainty in selling a property can be stressful. For more information on closing the deal and getting your buyer to meet you halfway, simply contact us today!
Realtor Kevin got an email from a prospective buyer who was ready to make an offer with their loan pre-approval attached. Kevin clicked the attachment to view the buyer’s documents, but there wasn’t anything there. "That’s strange," thought Kevin, and he closed his email. What Kevin didn’t know is that spyware was just installed on his device, and now, hackers had access to everything! The hackers were able to intercept a different deal Kevin was working and re-route a $257,000 wire from a REAL buyer working with Kevin, losing his client’s hard-earned money and their home purchase.
You’ve heard it before, but we’re going to tell you again! Your email and cyber security are paramount to your business - and your clients’ money.
From wire fraud and malware to personal information loss, there are several ways cyber crooks can succeed in a heist at your loss. There was OVER $213 million reported loss from real estate fraud, just last year!
Here are just a few tips to ensure you’re not a sitting duck for scammers and hackers:
By protecting yourself and your devices with layered security, you are decreasing your chances of a cyber-attack. At Florida Agency Network, cyber security is our top priority to ensure you and your clients have a secure transaction from start to finish.
Take the FEAR out of FIRPTA
FIRPTA is an acronym for the FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN REAL PROPERTY ACT of 1980. We know FIRPTA sounds crazy, and it does have a bunch of rules. But the idea behind it is simple – when buying a house that is owned by a foreign party, the title company must withhold a portion of the sale to make sure they pay taxes and it’s up to the BUYER to report the sale to the IRS!
Sounds complicated, we know… so here are 5 Facts to take the FEAR out of FIRPTA
FACT 1: WHO IS FIRPTA FOR?
The first thing to know is that FIRPTA only applies to buyers that are buying from a seller who is not a US Citizen/Resident Alien. There are several identifying factors for a foreign person or company, which the title company will discuss with the seller. If the seller is a foreign person or company, then there may be a portion of the proceeds withheld from closing. The seller will apply for a TIN number before the sale by filling out the W-7 application, if it’s the first time selling a property in the US.
FACT 2: CAN THE SELLER BE EXEMPT?
Yes! If it is a home with a sales price under $300,000 and the buyer intends to occupy the new home as their primary residence for most of the year, over the next two year period of time, the property is entirely exempt from the withholding. The buyer will be required to sign an agreement to confirm their intent to reside. This fact means for some people, FIRPTA never comes into play – but there’s still some paperwork you’ll need the parties to sign at closing.
FACT 3: HOW MUCH IS WITHHELD?
IF the sales price is over $300,000 to $1,000,000, the required withholding is 15% regardless if the buyers intends to occupy the property full time. There are some other rules that can make the withholding % increase or decrease, however, those are more rare.
FACT 4: What about a SHORT SALE?
Unfortunately for the seller, sometimes the sold home is worth less than the amount owed, but the FIRPTA requirements STILL come into play.
FACT 5: WE DO IT ALL FOR YOU!
The best part is when using ANY Florida Agency Network branded title company, we’ve got you covered when it comes to FIRPTA. We will discuss what is needed, based on the particulars for the parties and transaction and also have CPA’s that we can refer to, if needed.
To download more information about FIRPTA download our PDF here or call any of our locations.
HURRICANE SEASON
Each year, the country is hit with hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms, super storms, flooding, and more. With hurricane season running from June 1st to November 30th, coastal and inland region homeowners must prepare for potential storms annually. Of course, you have insurance to help you recover. But knowing and doing a few things now—while the weather’s fair—can help you and your family stay safe and help you protect your property if the unexpected happens:
• Stock up on important items such as canned goods, water, pet food, paper goods, flashlights & batteries with a battery-operated radio.
• Clean up around your property! Trim trees and shrubs, store outside items such as grills, boats, trailers securely – and yes storing the lawn furniture in the pool can work (if it’s rust proof!)
• Be sure all important documents are stored in a waterproof safe, in the cloud, or in a secure portal online. These documents should include your Homeowners Insurance policy, survey, marriage license, wills, social security card, title policy, etc.
• Consider Flood Insurance, even if you are not in a flood zone. Be sure to purchase early – it can take 30+ days for the insurance company to finalize your policy. Take photos of the property, inside and out, prior to the storm.
We’ve created a downloadable PDF of our tips for you and your clients. For resources by county on flood and evacuation zones, visit www.floridadisaster.org/knowyourzone.
What if you’re involved in a real estate transaction during hurricane season? Consider signing contracts and binding your insurance earlier than normal, and know your closings options in case of evacuation. Our options include, but are not limited to, Remote Online Notarization (RON), Mobile Notary services at your location, or a Traditional Closing (in-person at the office).
For more information reach out to your account executive or contact one of our locations: https://itptitle.com/locations/
