The second annual Florida Open House Weekend was held this past weekend, with over 15,000 open houses being held across the State of Florida. Florida Realtors proclaimed the event as the largest open house event in the country, and many potential home buyers from across the country, as well as internationally, came to our sunny state to investigate the bargains to be had.
Results? Mixed – Not Everyone Is Ready to Buy These Housing Bargains
As the dust settles, it’s being reported that the big Sales Event was not the major success that realtors were envisioning. Many of the buyers came from out of state or even out of the country trying to make deals for investment properties. Most bought with cash. Not as many Floridians appeared to be falling prey to the lure of a “great home bargain.”
One reason given for the lack of sales is a bad local economy – another is that not enough Floridians have money in their pockets, or the ability to get mortgage financing, to purchase real estate right now. For most, this is probably true.
However, many savvy Floridians aren’t ready to buy real estate until the Foreclosure Fraud mess is in the rear view mirror. While it is true that short sales are occurring, title questions are causing many potential Florida buyers to pass on these bargains.
Wrongful foreclosures and clear title are valid concerns in today’s real estate marketplace
As we’ve discussed in earlier posts, the Florida real estate market must provide a prospective buyer with trustworthy title to any property that is purchased. Today, there are too many instances of bad banking practices and faulty mortgage servicing – resulting in a lack of clarity of who owns what.
Sometimes, what is too good to be true is simply that: too good to be true.
There are people in the current Florida marketplace who think that they are buying real estate, but unfortunately will find in the future that they’ve really bought a lawsuit against the seller, title company, etc., because legal title to the property wasn’t never part of their deal. This isn’t news. To find that savvy Florida buyers are wary of buying property today shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.
