Ocala FL real estate listings and homes for sale, home buying, home selling information – All Florida GMAC Real Estate

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First Time Home Buyers

October 6th, 2008 11:54 AM

GREAT WEBSITE!
I wanted to share with you a really great website that helps put the State Programs into calculable numbers for anyone.

First Time Homebuyer Program
Florida Housing’s First Time Homebuyer Program (FTHB) offers 30-year fixed interest rate mortgage loans to first time homebuyers through its network of participating lenders and lending institutions. However, if you are not a first time homebuyer, you may still be eligible for this program if you are purchasing a home in a GO Zone county, or other federally designated targeted area. This program uses income and purchase price limits to determine eligibility.

What about people that owned a home then divorced and the spouse retained the residence? A lot of these people qualify as well.

There are several mortgage brokers listed on the site that would be able to assist you in finding out what you need to do to qualify for some of these programs.

What if you think you make too much?
I typed in the basic info for my family and this is what it came up with for us:

First Mortgage Income Limits:
You indicated that there will be 3 persons living in your home. Based on this information, your combined household income(s) to purchase a home in Marion County may not exceed $68,320.00 to be eligible for a mortgage through the FTHB program. However, if you will be purchasing a home in a federally designated target area, your income may be as high as $80,080.00 .

What if you really want to buy a home, but with paying rent and other everyday expenses you just can't quite get a big deposit saved up? Again I used my own example to give you an idea:

Down Payment Assistance (DPA)
In conjunction with the FTHB program, Florida Housing offers two down payment and closing cost assistance programs in the form of second mortgage loans, and up-front cash assistance to help eligible homebuyers cover their down payment and closing costs. Based on the information you provided, you may be eligible to receive ONE of the following:

Florida Assist (up to $10,000 available)
Based on your 3 person household , to be eligible for down payment assistance through Florida Assist, your combined household income may not exceed $43,900.00 . For a complete list of income limits by county for the Florida Assist program, click here.

HAMI Program (up to $5,000 available)
You may qualify for this program if your income exceeds the limits for the Florida Assist program and does not exceed $68,320.00 . The interest rate for the HAMI program is 5 percent.

Three Percent (3%) Cash Option
This option, in the form of cash assistance, provides borrowers with 3 percent of the loan amount applied toward down payment and closing costs.

If you are renting, and you want to buy or at least start getting your act together to buy call me, or visit that website to get some more info:

http://www.floridahousing.org/Home/HomebuyersRenters/default.htm

Posted by Andrea Jayne on October 6th, 2008 11:54 AM

Foreclosed Listings

October 17th, 2008 11:41 AM

It is amazing the prices on some of the foreclosed homes in the area. While I can see how it would be bad for seller's since this brings even more competition and further reduces the prices on their homes. It is amazing what your dollars will buy you in the way of real estate here in Ocala.

There has been a lot of interest lately in obtaining lists of foreclosed homes which I give to prospective buyers frequently. But sometimes those lists just don't tell the whole story.

When people come into the office asking for a list of foreclosed homes, they are wary, thinking that there is a hidden fee, or I am out to get them somehow, some kind of high pressure sales pitch is about to spew from my lips. Not so.
But at the same time, I think it is a disservice to hand someone a VERY condensed list of addresses and properties that don't tell the whole story. Some of these homes might have serious problems that are explained in the Realtor's notes but wouldn't be on a foreclosure list of addresses with prices.

I have added a lot of foreclosed homes to my available listings page this week. But please keep in mind while sifting through that you are not comparing identical products and you really need as much information as possible about a residence before making any decisions.

In other words: 'Let me know if you would allow me to help you'.

Posted by Andrea Jayne on October 17th, 2008 11:41 AM

$571 Million dollars anyone?

October 6th, 2008 12:00 PM

On Thursday, Governor Charlie Crist signed an executive order allowing $571 million in financing that reluctant buyers can use to build and buy new homes!

Basically our government is hoping to get our economy rolling again by having builders build more houses and apartments. While I love the idea of more incentives to home buyers, I'm not sure that we need anymore new homes when we still have so many vacant and even abandoned homes in the area.

It seems like it's going to be a good week in a market that has been touch and go week-by-week for a while now.

Posted by Andrea Jayne on October 6th, 2008 12:00 PM

Ocala Electric Utility

October 3rd, 2008 5:25 PM

City Council Meeting

Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 4:00 pm at Ocala City Hall, 151 South East Osceola Avenue, Ocala, FL, 34471

For 1,000 kilowatt hours we (yes I have the Ocala Electric Utility plague as well) pay 53% more than Orlando, Winter Park, St. Cloud, Jacksonville and Blountstown. All of these are also Florida Municipal Electric Association members. The average residential customer, also sees roughly $29 in fees unrelated to energy costs attached to each bill. What's a real kicker is that we pay 60% more than our neighbors in Ocala that have Progress Energy. So if your electric bill was $290 (mine for example) if you lived just a few streets away and had Progress Energy you would have paid closer to $174.

Hmmm, that would mean my family would save thousands of dollars by buying a home that wasn't in the Ocala Electric Utilities clutches.

Why oh why is this even possible?

Because the city of Ocala depends on OEU to subsidize city services, at least that's what City Manager Ricky Horst admitted recently. Last fiscal year the utility transferred roughly $12 million into the city's general fund.

Not only that, after the incredibly high rates we had this summer, the Energy Management Cost Association rate was on the table to increase to 0.483 mills per kilowatt hour. (The EMCA is a fee OEU charges to recoup costs associated with the utility's Energy Management Office, a division of OEU that assesses customers' energy efficiency and conducts community conservation programs). They wanted to raise it even more!!! Thankfully that was unanimously shot down.

We will also see an estimated 18% drop in November supposedly based on gas prices.

So what are the consequenses? (Aside from VERY angry customers). People are not able to pay their electric bills. I have a lot of people asking me to find them homes not just in a certain school zone, but also in the right electric company zone.

Seriously, last year 12 million went to the city, this year 19 million. Divided by it's roughly 57,000 customers that means that we basically had a tax of $210 each that was snuck into our electric bill. This year we will have a $333 tax.

I love the City of Ocala, but does it really need $19 million dollars out of our pockets every year?

Posted by Andrea Jayne on October 3rd, 2008 5:25 PM