Vacation home rentals gaining momentum

Angel Luna bought a three-bedroom bungalow five minutes from the water in Apollo Beach when she moved to Florida to launch her jewelry and clothing design business.

She soon decided she would rather live where she worked in West Shore than commute from South County, but Luna wanted to retain ownership of the bungalow and even use it on occasion.

That’s when a chance conversation with a fellow passenger at Tampa International Airport alerted her to the opportunity to turn her home into a vacation rental with an international firm specializing in connecting homeowners and short-term clients.

via Vacation home rentals gaining momentum.

After IPO, Builder Joins ‘Biggest’ Rankings

A wave of home builders debuting on the stock markets this year has slightly reordered the ranks of the largest publicly traded builders in the U.S.

Since January, five home builders have conducted initial public offerings of their stock and raised nearly $1.46 billion cumulatively. That’s the most that the industry has reaped in IPOs in a given year since 1993, according to Dealogic Inc.

Taylor Morrison Home Corp., a builder in Southern and Western U.S. states as well as Canada, now ranks as the 11th largest company by enterprise value at roughly $1.6 billion. (Enterprise value takes into consideration equity, debt, preferred shares, minority interests and cash on hand. In contrast, market capitalization typically focuses only on equity value.)

via After IPO, Builder Joins ‘Biggest’ Rankings.

Real Estate Investing With Cash? Why You Should Reconsider

Home prices are finally starting to rise, but not so much or so quickly that the great deals are disappearing. In fact, right now many investors have moved back into the market buying up properties that they will either rehabilitate and resell or rent out for cash flow. With interest rates still incredibly low, it’s easy to make a profit on the spread between your monthly mortgage payment and the rent you can get for the home.

But this means you have to get a home loan, which probably means you’ll be working with a bank. Right now, banks are not enjoying a very good relationship with most consumers, and there’s a lot of distrust in the marketplace — some of it justified and some of it not. It’s also true that banks would rather lend money for owner-occupied homes than investment homes, because there is less risk involved in these deals. That can make it harder to get the money you need from a lender.

via Real Estate Investing With Cash? Why You Should Reconsider.

“Shocking” number of luxury condos for sale on MLS

The number of $1 million-plus condos for sale in Toronto has reached such “shocking” levels, it would take about 20 months to sell them all given current demand, more than four times what it would take to clear the current inventory of more conventional condos.

What’s even more worrisome is those numbers don’t include “shadow inventory,” which could easily exceed the number of high-end condos that were listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service as of the end of June, says Toronto realtor Andrew la Fleur who did the math recently on behalf of an investor.

That shadow inventory includes units that have yet to sell in five-star hotel projects like the Trump International Hotel & Tower, Ritz-Carlton, Shangri-La and Four Seasons, all of which have hit the market in the last two years.

via “Shocking” number of luxury condos for sale on MLS.

Ask a real estate pro: Board wants condo owner to pay more

Q: I own a condominium unit, but recently moved to a house and decided to rent the condo. The association is now saying it wants me to pay an extra $100 a month in maintenance fees and it’s taking away the great parking spot I had for years and giving me one in the back. Can the board do this? – Anonymous

A: No. As a condo unit owner, you are responsible to your association for the maintenance dues regardless of whether you are living in the unit, renting it out or letting it sit vacant. Just as you can’t request lower payments because the unit is vacant, your association can’t demand higher payments from you because you’re renting the unit.

via Ask a real estate pro: Board wants condo owner to pay more.

‘Isle of View’ a true Sarasota mansion

A large part of the Sarasota housing market occupies the extremes.

At one end, a third of homes in the Sarasota market are in negative equity (underwater) and the median sales price of a home is $176,360, more than 40 percent lower than it was during the boom, eight years ago.

At the other end are homes like the Bird Key mansion Doug and Cindy Tibbetts built. It’s on the market for a bit more than $8 million — a price that no longer turns heads in Sarasota.

via ‘Isle of View’ a true Sarasota mansion.