i am planning a move from NY to FL within a few months or by next year. haven't closed on a property yet, still looking for a detached single fam within 1/2 from JAX or MLB airports, yes i'm flex between Jacksonville or Melbourne and anywheres between on the east coast. i won't be moving down until i actually have a closing date. i fly down 1-2 times a month in the mean while.

only been a NY realtor for a yr, seeing that there's no reciprocity between ny and fl i'm wondering hows the re mkt doing down there these days? from a couple folks i heard its "slow".... how about mortgages? i am 28 yo and flexible for whether i get into re or morts i guess, it looks kind of more extensive with the licensing for mort though (right)? can anyone let me know the best school to go to in FL (for salesperson license if not mort license), preferably online since i'm still in NY. also who are the big/busy northern Florida brokers with no desk fees, i'm looking for something like 70/30 split and perhaps low premium or paid health insurance perks.... that sort of thing. have dual degree from NYU in real estate mgmt and people management, am even open to working salaried for a property manager if real estate down there will be too slow for a newbie to fl like me to make a living off anew.

thanks in advance!

cheers,

neil.

Hi Neil:

I live in Tampa and I can tell you that the RE market here is SLOW. I would assume the same to be correct in Jacksonville. According to my clients, it seems slow across the nation.

One interesting "Florida" issue you will have here with is the difficulty in buyers to secure insurance for the homes. A lot of companies no longer want to insure Floridians. So, a lot of times the only option is to use Citizens (state sponsored and 3 times the amount of regular insurance). I have heard of some sales not going through due to insurance hassle.

Anyway, good luck with the move!

yeah, most RE trends would be national, but not exactly the same.
dang, ALL floridians having insurance issues???, that's scary!!! i was hoping it was just places within a mile of the beach/river or so. thats really sad so many people move to florida every single month. what is it like 1,000 families relocate to florida every single month? will definitely have to learn about what to do when factoring insurance issues into the deal. its amazing how people nowadays expect 100%+ financing, i personally think once it comes to dream homes, estates, or retirement homes, i dont understand why such people have torely on all credit funds for the bulk of such types of purchases. the banking mentality is just all messed up. like a bank refusing to finance a property that is already 50%+ cash down because there is no insurance policy secureable, but gladly financing 106% of properties blindly as long as there is insurance. on my currently primary dwelling here in ny i paid off the mort in full sev mos ago (had 50% down to begin with) and the banks still sending me demands for proof of insurance -- LOL. every re agent in fl i talk with for some reason wants to see me put nothing down, yet they don't even address issues like if we cant get insurance on such and such coastal property, and there's no down, how do such deals ever pass UW? i guess they have connections????
aside for flip investments, i don't see why realtors nowadays attack me when i mention i'm putting d at least 20% on my primary residence. u know owners won't complain.
anyway tampa/clearwater is beautiful.
i saw alot of REposts on craigslist for "deals" that fell through over and over in florida. i wish CL would make more city categories for florida -- like they don't even have a section appropriate for brevard/melb.

Yep...anywhere in Florida you will have insurance issues. That is because the agencies had to pay out so much from the recent hurricanes (one of the most badly hit areas, Polk County, is in the middle of the state!) that they don't want to take on anyone.

I think it is interesting that you mentioned the no money down problem. I am hearing there will be a huge bust here in 2007 due to an abundance of cretive financing that happened starting around 2001. I don't know what is going on but it seems like we are in for a rocky time.

Evy
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