Real Estate Deals in the Florida Keys?

Is it time?  So many people that are looking to purchase Real Estate somewhere and all seem to be asking themselves the same question.  “Well, is it?”

That answer is “yes”.  Markets come, and markets go, and whether it’s the stock market…or the Real Estate market, one basic fact still holds true:  “You don’t lose, unless you have to sell”.

Keeping a well-valued stock, or keeping a well-valued piece of “the rock” will increase in value over time, and will make you money over time as well.  It’s the “over time” part that some people don’t get, and that is what could very well make right now the right time, for you.

There is an old adage among seasoned stock market entrepreneurs.  It goes like this:

“Bears get rich, bulls get rich, but pigs…never get rich.”  For those of us not deeply versed in the inner workings of the stock market, what that means basically is that:

a)    “Bulls” refer to one type of investor.  A long-term investor, who “plays” the stock
      market, puts money into stocks that he or she likes and then forgets about them for
      years. 

b)    “Bears” refers to a different type of investor, who likes certain stocks because they are on the move!  Based on a very educated guess these stocks in theory, should take off, rendering the “bear” a fair profit on his or her money over a shorter term.

So who then are the “pigs”?  The best way to answer that is by referring to another family from the marine animal kingdom...fish.  Have you ever seen a giant school of fish being chased and devoured feverishly by predator fish that get all caught up in the “frenzy” of catching and eating up as many fish as possible just because they can?  This is also how fish get caught.  They don’t think before they devour.  They get caught up in a blind, greed driven feeding frenzy.  When that happens many of them get caught.

That brings us to you.  Quite frankly, the reason that right now could very well be your best time to get serious about buying your dream here in the “only frost free city in North America” is because many of those “pigs” are about to get caught.  There are lots of folks that really aren’t investors but assumed that they were. They have found out too late that the musical chairs song has suddenly stopped and they are left without a chair. 

Many of them bought 2 or 3 years ago, driven by the “fast buck” of rapid appreciation in the Keys Real Estate market with “interest only” mortgages or “ARM’S, (adjustable rate mortgages).  Many mortgaged with little or nothing down.  They rented the properties that they bought to cover the “nut” but did so based on the circumstances at the time, never thinking that the “balloon” would ever come due, because in 3 years they will have made their mad money and gotten out, before the “balloon” was due.  In the case of the ARM, many based their decision and rental rate on their cost then, NOT their cost or “nut” if the interest rate “adjusted” upward, which it now has.

Bottom line?  In this temporary “down” market their properties in both cases, won’t appraise at the moment.  They are suddenly faced with either having to pay off their “interest only” mortgage for 2 or 3 years balloon note or they are faced with almost double the monthly payment that they were stretching to hit to begin with when the prime rate went up.  What to do?

Here’s where you come in.  Everyone likes a deal, right?  Most buyers, if they’re honest, love the “hunt” too.  The chase.  They want to negotiate.  They need to win.  Well, in many cases right now, you can.  These  “psuedo” investors that really had no business over-extending, now have no choice but to “get off” some properties, and get off, RIGHT NOW!

They’re pulling money out of their pockets every month these days to cover that “nut” that they created.  Rents have held quite steadily but the cost of interest, or that note coming due, has put serious pressure on.  It’s the old, “pay me now, or pay me later” idea.  Good for you!

It’s “deal or no deal” time.  Find the property that you love, and now you can make an offer and most likely win, rather than having one of these overnight “big shots” simply turn their nose up at you like they would have two years ago.  Those days are gone.  Now, they can’t afford to hang on any longer.  They have no choice but to get out and get out right now!

You can negotiate, be in the “driver’s seat”, and most likely get the deal that you really want.  The best part is you now know where the market was.  You now know at what numbers people were actually buying these exact properties, before the downturn.

So, buy now, at the “bottom” end of this particular market and simply enjoy your new property here, and wait a short while for your turn at the big bucks!

Just don’t “sell short”.  That’s all.  Ed Andersen, General Manager of the Coldwell Banker Schmitt Real Estate company, the largest real estate company doing business in the Keys which is headquartered in Marathon Florida, consistently puts it like this:  “Statistically, it looks as though we very well may be at the bottom, and rounding the corner to the upswing”. Good news. 

“Markets come…and markets go”, is what the gray-haired gentlemen with the hefty portfolios say as they count their money in their overstuffed wing chairs.  They’ve all made their mistakes…and lived to talk about them.

Learn from them.  Just don’t be a pig.  Pigs, end up getting roasted.

Ray Jensen, P.A., REALTOR®, e-PRO

www.KeyWestRealEstateNetwork.com

KeyWestRealEstate@gmail.com
877-611-KEYS
 

Coldwell Banker Schmitt Real Estate Company

Key West, Florida