Roofable

Traffic in Waterford

October 30, 2007 – 7:45 am | by Pam Johnson

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The other day I was driving down Lake Underhill Road in Waterford Lakes. I stopped at a light and a woman handed me a flier through the window. It said that there could be up to another 300-600 cars on Waterford Lakes if we don’t immediately contact the commissioners to influence them on an upcoming vote.

Evidently, they’ll be voting on whether or not to grant a developer permission to rezone parcel N19-B to medium density (5-20 units per acre) with 15 usable acres. Parcel N19-B is a piece of land located in the back of Waterford Lakes at the very end of Lake Underhill Road. You can see the proposed development below.

There is more information on this initiative at www.LeadersOfEastOrlando.org. If you would like to write to the commissioners you can email them at the following addresses.

Teresa Jacobs: district1@ocfl.net

Fred Brummer: district2@ocfl.net

Mildred Fernandez: district3@ocfl.net

Linda Stewart: district4@ocfl.net

Bill Segal: district5@ocfl.net

Tiffany Moore: district6@ocfl.net

Mayor Rich Crotty: mayor@ocfl.net

Spooktacular at Waterford Lakes Town Center

October 30, 2007 – 6:54 am | by Pam Johnson

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Every year the Town Center has been open for families to bring small children to Trick-or-Treat on Halloween.

This year the Town Center will be open for Trick-or-Treaters on Wednesday, October 31, from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Look for orange pumpkin signs outside participating stores and grab some candy from approximately 30 stores.

Rules and Regulations:

Participating stores will be designated with an orange pumpkin sig

Trick or Treat event is for children 12 years and younger

No toy weapons will be permitted

Masks will be permitted on children 12 years and younger only

Costumes will only be permitted during event hours

Hoods which cover the head or face are not permitted

Amoeba

October 29, 2007 – 10:19 am | by Pam Johnson

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In September of this year we probably all heard about the amoeba in the lakes in Central Florida.

The amoeba is called Naegleria fowleri and thrives in warm, fresh water lakes. It has claimed the lives of at least 3 boys who had been playing in the lakes. The amoeba is extremely rare and almost always fatal. It enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain. It presents with flu-like symptoms that quickly worsen over 1 to 14 days until the patient lapses into a coma.

The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia has only documented 24 cases of the deadly amoeba since 1989 and now Central Florida has seen three cases in one summer.

Even though the weather is going to be changing soon, please be careful if you’re playing in the lakes. The Orange County Health Department Director, Dr. Kevin Sherin, suggests that you wear a nose clip or stay out of the water warmer than 80 degrees.

A nice alternative to the warm, shallow lakes may be a visit to one of the colder freshwater springs in the Central Florida area.

Orlando’s Environment

October 15, 2007 – 2:21 pm | by Erik Hersman

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Today is Blog Action Day, which is about the environment this year.

For my part, I’d like to point out a great blog/site/publication about living “green” in Orlando. Easy enough to remember since it’s called GreenOrlando. It’s an interesting website that is focused on keeping Orlando a great place to live. They focus on eight quality of life aspects: Art, Balance, Ethics, Faith, Fitness, Nature, Teamwork and Sustainability.

Sample stories cover everything from using natural Florida flora to do your landscaping to coverage of Florida’s greenways and trails.

Best of all, the Green Orlando site takes submissions for stories, events and thoughts from you on how to keep Orlando beautiful. Have a thought? Submit it to them.

There have already been some excellent posts written around the Orlando blogosphere about our local environment:

EKDAY - Clean up Orlando
Shaun talks about how the simple act of disposing correctly of the plastic 6-pack soda holders can make a big impact to our local birds.

Hojin Chang - Green Vision House Orlando 2008
“Green Vision Home will be a 4,900 square foot high end custom home to be built by Westmont Homes to demonstrate that green homes can be glamorous and durable enough to withstand the rigors of being in an active hurricane zone.”

[If you have an Orlando blog and wrote something for Blog Action Day, let me know and I’ll add it here.]

Estate of the Week: La Belleza Dorata

October 10, 2007 – 8:37 am | by Erik Hersman

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La Belleza Dorata is an absolutely stunning property available in Isleworth for $6 million.

This majestic Tuscan treasure is an inspired work of art including lavish finishes, imported stone and magnificent faux painting. This estate provides an unparalleled venue for indoor-outdoor entertaining. Dramatic arches, columns, Venetian plaster, ceilings with hand painted Italian designs are some of the extensive detailing found throughout this home.

A sweeping, freestanding staircase curves up to 3 bedroom suites. Beautiful Italian tile leads onto maple hardwood flooring inside the formal living, dining rooms, & private study. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room have lovely views of the outdoor living area.

The dining room & kitchen opens to a Venetian courtyard with Ramada fountain. The spacious chef’s kitchen is enhanced by copper ceiling & a fun hidden pantry. An inviting master suite with sitting room has gorgeous views of the outdoor living area.

Overlooking the 16th tee is the unique Gentlemen’s Private Retreat with its Northwest Territories decor, full sized bar & bath. The expansive golf front outdoor living includes a Jandy controled heated pool & spa with water features, summer kitchen, relaxing gazebo, & disappearing screened lanai with fireplace. Motor court separated by 6 oversized car garages.

Property Location: 9905 Lake Louise Drive, Windermere, FL 34786 (Map)
Listing is by Isleworth Realty, a part of the Tavistock Group

[editor’s note: I’m a sucker for great pictures. Send in your best property images and I’ll add them to Roofable.]

Lou Pearlman’s Home is Back on the Market

October 10, 2007 – 7:56 am | by Erik Hersman

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The $7.1 million dollar house that was reportedly on contract is now back on the market. The Orlando Sentinel reports:

The sale of the 9,000-square-foot home near Windermere on Lake Butler last month to Orlando plastic surgeon John Choi fell through after he was unable to obtain financing, said Denise Dell-Powell, attorney for court-appointed bankruptcy trustee Soneet Kapila.

Your Friendly Editor Interviewed On InmanTV

October 5, 2007 – 11:17 am | by Erik Hersman

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Inman Real Estate Connect is a conference that highlights how technology can be used in the real estate space. I was interviewed by Joel Burslem while at it this summer. At that time, I was still part of the eppraisal.com team as well.

By the way, if you do online video in real estate, you really should try WellcomeMat, the service the above video is done in. They have one of the best quality online video players on the web, and they have the chaptering ability that is perfect for using in real estate videos where you want people to be able to switch between “kitchen” or “oustide” parts really easily.

The next Real Estate Connect is in NY in January, 2008.

Real Estate Costs are Hurting Florida

October 4, 2007 – 1:40 pm | by Erik Hersman

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This isn’t really news to anyone who lives here in Orlando. However, there is an interesting article in the RealEstateJournal about the reasons why Florida is having problems with attracting new people to the state.

Some interesting points:

Moving company Atlas Van Lines brought 6,700 families into Florida last year and took 8,000 out, the first time it has moved more out than in.

While foreigners continue to arrive at a rate of about 100,000 year, migration from inside the country is slowing. (RE Agents, you hear that? Better change your strategies…)

A two-tier tax system hits newcomers and part-time residents harder than long time homeowners.

Ms. Thomas and her husband bought a $168,000 house. The mortgage, with property taxes and homeowner’s fees, comes to about $1,500 a month — more than half a month’s pay.

East Orlando’s Innovation Way

October 4, 2007 – 7:00 am | by Pam Johnson

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Innovation Way…AKA the Alafaya Extension. There’s been a lot of speculation about when they’re going to start and complete this project. Dawn Pratt, who writes “East Orlando Life” wrote to Commissioner, Linda Steward, and received a reply from her aide. This is what Dawn reported. For the whole response visit Dawn’s article.

• The widening of Alafaya Trail will begin during 2009
• Innovation Way will stop short 800ft north of the Beachline and will be complete December 2008
• Innovation Way/Beachline Interchange is projected to begin 2009 and be complete in 2011
• Innovation Way from the Beachline to the 417 is projected to be complete some time between 2012 and 2017

How to Lie with Graphs: The NY Times as Real Estate Case Study

October 3, 2007 – 11:07 am | by Erik Hersman

5 Comments

The New York Times just released a new graph showing the housing bubble. The only problem is, they have intentionally skewed the way the chart reads to make their bubble look even bigger and more extreme.

Nat Torkington points this out:

“In effect, they’ve zoomed in on the area from 100-150 and magnified the growth in the last 15 years.”

We very well might be in a housing bubble, that doesn’t excuse the NY Times creation of a misleading and overly sensational chart.

The Calculated Risk blog breaks down the errors and omissions even further and then shows what the graph should really look like if the NY Times wasn’t intentionally trying to magnify the negatives:

Quick Hits Around Orlando Real Estate

October 2, 2007 – 8:53 am | by Erik Hersman

1 Comment

Dawn Pratt gets an update from Commissioner Linda Stewart on the time line for extending Alafaya Trail (Innovation Way) to the 528 (the Beachline).

Hojin Chang is showcasing some of the houses that famous people live(d) in SW Orlando. This week she covers the one that Payne Stewart and Tracy McGrady called home, and Shaq’s house.

Rob Arnold gives us 6 Tips to Selling in a Buyer’s Market. (Excellent Post!)

The Orlando Sentinel covers the College Park Leisure Homes (trailers) eviction saga. It’s an interesting case of squatters vs developers right in the middle of Orlando.

Linda Hutchinson of Stirling Sotheby’s answers the question: What do the Rich Really Want?

BlogOrlando - Local Community Real Estate Bloggers Talk

September 28, 2007 – 12:54 pm | by Erik Hersman

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I’m attending an interesting local conference called BlogOrlando today, located at Rollins College in Winter Park. What’s interesting about this is that there are a number of local bloggers who talk about real estate and the local communities in Orlando.

So far I’ve been able to meet Tim Welch (pictured), who writes Colonialtown blog, and Chris Gent, who writes about the Conway area, for the Orlando Sentinel.

I also had the chance to have lunch with Debra Horowitz who is an expert in the Avalon Park real estate market in East Orlando.

Blogging about communities within Orlando is an area I hope to see increase greatly. The best news about an area is put out by the locals in that community - I see our job at Roofable as finding some of the best news and commentary from them and helping even more people find it.

$250 Million Tradition Towers is Back on Track

September 27, 2007 – 7:33 am | by Erik Hersman

1 Comment

Even with a cooling condo market, Tradition Towers overlooking Lake Eola is back on track. This time however, half of the building will be a new top end luxury hotel. Developer Steve Walsh claims that their hotel will be even more exclusive than Orlando’s Grand Bohemian. I’ll be interested to see if that is the case.

It’s a brave move to continue building into a slumping condo market. I certainly hope to see Orlando continue to grow though, so am glad that it’s happening.

(more at the Sentinel)

Carnival of Real Estate (consumer edition)

September 26, 2007 – 2:37 pm | by Erik Hersman

3 Comments

The Consumer-focused Carnival of Real Estate is a way to highlight great writing around the real estate blogosphere as it relates to things that everyday people care about - not just real estate agents. Below I highlight my 5 favorite entries:

Should Your Home Valuation Deserve To Appreciate If You Install A Pool?
Silicon Valley Blogger writes an entertaining article about adding a swimming pool to your property. Is it really worth it?

How Buyers Can Walk in the Shoes of Sellers and Listing Agents
An excellent article by Steve Leung, talking about how buyers can better understand sellers motivations and get the most for their money.

FHA Reform Hits the Wall
The Salt Lake City blog discusses the changes (or lack thereof) in Congress about the FHA reform bill.

Will Agents List My Property if I Owe More Than It’s Worth?
Dan Melson gives his insights into property listings that an owner is “upside down” on.

Deja Vu~Buying/Selling Simultaneously in a Buyer’s Market vs a Seller’s Market (what a world of difference!)
Pat Kapowich’s insightful post being in a buyers market, and trying to sell your property at the same time as buying.

Orlando Real Estate Roundup

September 25, 2007 – 12:06 pm | by Erik Hersman

4 Comments

Florida Super Homestead Tax Exemption might be thrown out. (via Rob and Sentinel):

Choosing the “super” homestead exemption would mean the homeowner would forever lose the Save Our Homes cap. And as Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan and others have shown, many people who stay in their homes more than four years would save more with Save Our Homes limiting future tax bills.

Maitland city council wants to make some big changes, but have their hands full with local citizens (via Orlando Sentinel):

The centerpiece of Maitland’s downtown makeover would be 675 condominiums and apartments, shops restaurants and offices built by the Brossier Co. Those buildings would rise on land that is now home to City Hall, the Police Department and other city offices, a shuttered Winn-Dixie supermarket and parking lots.