Archive | Editorial
Multi-Family Housing Making A Roaring Comeback By William Henry PhD According to a recent forum held by the University of Florida’s graduate real estate department for its Board of Trustees, the resurgence is due to the following factors: 1) Changing demographics leads to increased demand 2) The deep recession 3) A preference for a more urban lifestyle 4) Disillusionment with the American dream 5) Mounting cash reserves by certain financial institutions Changing Demographics Only one in five households will be married couples with children in 2025. Those who do choose the traditional family lifestyle will postpone this decision for up […]
Trends In International Real Estate By Patricia Tan I write this soon after returning from a springtime marketing trip to Western Europe. I make a similar trip at least twice each year and combine having a presence at overseas property shows, with delivering educational seminars to European buyers looking to invest in Florida and meetings with our valued partners in various European countries. These trips afford me the opportunity to experience first-hand, how our European cousins are spending their Euros, Sterling, Krona or other currency, when they look to buy real estate outside their home countries. The top two destinations […]
Successful Putting In Windy Conditions By Chad Jones This time of year, the weather can change drastically from day to day. The most difficult days to putt are the really windy days. The next time you find yourself playing a round of golf in windy conditions, I recommend trying these simple tips. First, do not place your putter on the ground behind the ball. This will save you strokes if the ball would happen to move. By doing this, a player would not have addressed the ball and would not be given a penalty stroke. Secondly, I would suggest speeding […]
Design Lines – Indoor / Outdoor By Pamela Hughes Sarasota! What better place to let the outdoors in and live in the outdoors! So much of our year has balmy breezes and minimal bug-life that you can spend a great deal of time either in the sun or under cover. Either way there are many ways to enjoy comfort and luxury while enjoying nature’s gifts. One of the ways we like to use the outdoors is an architectural feature often called a “loggia”. This is often a terrace with a roof, sometimes part of the structure of a house, sometimes […]
Knowledge Is Power… … and nowhere is that more true than in today’s international real estate market By Patricia Tan This saying is attributed to Francis Bacon, the Tudor philosopher, scientist and statesman, and was part of a document he wrote in 1596 – so how can it possibly apply to what is happening in our real estate market today? As a real estate practitioner who spends much time with international buyers of Florida real estate, I would say that one of the key things that differentiates overseas buyers from American buyers is their thirst for knowledge. They want to […]
Cold Causes Mold? By William Henry PhD Recently our firm, RGA Architects, LLC was retained to provide expert testimony to assess the cause of significant amounts of toxic mold growth caused by the winter cold snaps. Unlike mold caused by water penetration, mold caused by cold snaps is due to significant variation in temperatures, like the huge swings from warm to cold we experienced during the winter season in the Bay area. When improper construction techniques meet normal human activity, the results can be disastrous. Activities like excessive showers and baths, or washing clothes with improper ventilation, can cause an […]
New Laws Governing Mortgage Originators By Budd Moore New lending laws regulate originator compensation and help protect the borrower’s “best interest.” April brings Tax Day and this year it also brings new laws to govern mortgage originators. The new lending laws, effective April 1st, have leveled the playing field for all originators, including banks, mortgage companies, and mortgage brokers. While most of the larger banks adopted these new rules over a year ago smaller lenders and brokers have waited until April 1, 2011 to adjust their practices and adopt the new laws. Under the new regulations, a loan originator “may […]
Pitching By Golf Pro Nick Arthur Many golfers struggle to pitch the golf ball. One common reason that golfers struggle with pitching is they lose the connection between their arms and their body. To perfect your pitching and maintain connection through the golf swing, try the towel drill shown above. Place a towel across your upper chest and under each armpit. The goal of this drill is to keep the towel under both arms during the takeaway as well as after impact. Using the towel will feel restrictive. For this reason you should begin practicing with half swings. Imagine that […]
Design Lines The Sarasota School Of Architecture By Pamela Hughes In our last column, I wrote about Modern Design, so I thought it might be interesting to further the discussion and specifically focus on Sarasota itself and “The Sarasota School”. It is interesting to recall that this “modernism” is now more than 50 years old! While that is certainly true, it is also true that as one drives around Sarasota and occasionally sees these houses and buildings from that time, they retain a freshness and originality that is still stunning and inspiring. In an earlier time, Sarasota was a beautiful, […]
Taking A Lesson From Red Adair By Patricia Tan What has the renowned oil well firefighter, Red Adair, got to do with the world of international real estate? Read on! As we welcome winter visitors to our balmy, sunny shores, we hope they will stay a while and enjoy the Florida lifestyle. Many will enjoy it so much that they will look to purchase a home they can use for future vacations or retirement, taking advantage of bargain prices and low mortgage rates. A large proportion of those visitors will be from other countries – Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and […]
Seeing Red By John and Rose Brasgalla JRB Group General Contractors When the owners of this West of the Trail home purchased the property, they knew they were getting a great deal. Of course, buying a home for the price of the lot alone is an even better deal if the house is worth keeping. Updating a 60 year-old house is challenging enough, but it is even more work to fix a place that has had decades of experimental projects and repairs. Having done a loft in Boston as a DIY project, the owners knew that this job required professional […]
Does Your House Need A Trusted Advisor? By John Lambie The big ticket items for most people are houses and cars. Most of us have, or wish we had, a trusted mechanic. Your mechanic knows how your car operates, keeps your service record and lets you know when maintenance is needed and what to do in the event of a fender bender or mechanical breakdown. And for improving on the original, only real “gear heads” dig in to their own cars to improve performance. But What About Your Home? Most homeowners were not involved in the design and construction of […]
If You Are Waiting To Buy – Think Again! By C.J. Coury Most prognosticators agree that home prices have somewhat stabilized from the days of annual double-digit deflation – others predict continued downward movement in home prices. No matter which group you chose to believe there is one absolute certainty – interest rates have increased substantially and are likely to continue their upward trend as inflationary pressure continues. The impact of rising interest rates on your monthly payment is even more impactful than a decrease in the purchase price of the home, even if they should continue to fall a […]
Master The Short Putts By Golf Pro Nick Arthur To master the art of short putting, a golfer needs two things. The first is the confidence to make the putt and the second is an accelerating putter head down the target line. To improve your short putting, try this drill. All you need is a shaft and three tees. Place the shaft along the target line (or the toe of your putter.) Then make a gate from two tees. The first tee will be just outside the toe of your putter. The second tee will be just on the inside […]
Have H.A.F.A.? By Anne L. Weintraub, Esquire Anne Weintraub P.A. It was billed as an exciting new government program to assist homeowners who did not qualify for loan modifications under the Obama administration’s HAMP program. Under the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, or HAFA, a borrower could qualify for a short sale by submitting a HAFA application to their lender to receive a pre-approved listing price within 10 days. With the pre-approved price, the borrower would receive total forgiveness of the note on the first mortgage AND the second mortgage, with an additional $3,000 in relocation expenses as an incentive. […]
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Youtube
RSS
Thursday, June 2, 2011
0 Comments