Pinellas County Real Estate Podcast with Sean McManamon

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Selling your home? Get a free Home Value Report   Buying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Around this time of year, people are always asking me questions about buying towards the end of the year. A lot of people have been asking lately if there is a taxable benefit to closing on a home by the end of the year. The answer is yes, and it’s called a homestead exemption. With a homestead exemption, you can get up to a $50,000 reduction on your home’s taxable value if that home is your primary residence. Let’s use some numbers to give you a better example of what this means. Say you have a home that has an assessed value of $200,000. With the homestead exemption, your taxable value drops to $150,000. This lower taxable value will give you lower property taxes if the home is your primary residence. The way it works, is if you purchase the home, close by December 31st and file on time and correctly, you will get that exemption for 2016, lowering your property taxes. If however, you don’t close until after the 1st of the year, you will not be eligible for the homestead exemption until 2017, and you’ll have to pay higher property taxes for a year. If you have any questions about the homestead exemption, or anything else real estate related, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Selling your home? Get a free Home Value Report   Buying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Today I want to talk a little about online home evaluations. There are a lot of different sites out there you can use to find the value of your home, but are they really accurate? These sites give you an automatic value of what your home is worth, but are they reliable? In reality, they are not very reliable or accurate. They are all based on an algorithm that doesn’t take into account things like square footage, your home’s location, or any improvements you have made to the home. Those three things have a huge impact on your home’s value, and if the online site doesn’t know about them, your estimate may be much lower or higher than what you could actually sell for. There are only two ways you can get a truly accurate home valuation.   The first way is with an appraisal. That’s going to run you a few hundred bucks, but it’s important for determining the true loan value for your home, which will determine what kind of buyers look at it. The second way to get an accurate home valuation is with a comparative market analysis, which we provide free, with no obligation. We will come out, take a look at your home, note any repairs, improvements, or unique features your home has, and use that to give you a true market value. If you go online and your valuation is too low or too high, don’t pay too much attention. If you really want a true valuation, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help out. Talk to you soon!

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Selling your home? Get a free Home Value Report   Buying a home? Search all Homes for Sale Today I want to talk about property disclosures because they've been in the news a lot recently. So, what should you disclose about a property? My best advice would be that if you're questioning whether you should disclose something, you should just go ahead and tell the potential buyer. No matter how big or how normal, you should disclose the history of the property to the best of your ability. There are some homeowners that recently failed to disclose a sinkhole on their property, and they have been sentenced with criminal charges for not disclosing this fact about their home.   This is very important if you're selling your home on your own. A lot of FSBO sellers don't know this, but they need to spill the beans when a buyer asks about their property. Although it's an extreme case, you don't want to end up in jail just because you withheld some information about your property. Buyers in Tampa should be careful to get a disclosure on a home that they're purchasing, because as a buyer you're fully entitled to one. However, if you buy a foreclosure, you must buy it 'as is'. If you have any questions about this issue, or if you need real estate assistance in Tampa, please don't hesitate to contact us! We look forward to hearing from you!