Before you Buy That Florida Condo

Before you make a firm offer to buy a condominium in Tampa Bay, Florida, regardless of whether its a normal transaction or a foreclosure-related short sale, you need to know what else is involved other than its availability, condition, and price.

You need to gather and understand a fair amount of information other than just its availability and price. Read this article about Questions to Ask Before Buying a Condo and then call me at (813) 263-6806 or email me at cheryl@cherylstimac.com

For more general information on Tampa Bay real estate opportunities, I invite you to visit my full Tampa Bay Florida Real Estate website.

Welcme to Tampa Bay Florida

Tampa Florida is the "heart" of Tampa Bay, an ideal hometown for young families and retirees alike. Tampa Bay's weather is delightful. The average year-round temperature is 72°, a refreshing 60° in January and an average of 82° in August.

Our phenomenal weather fosters an abundance of outdoor recreation. The Hillsborough River, stretching 56 miles, offers fishing, canoeing, and boating. There are numrous camping areas and hiking trails as well as nearly 200 parks, 136 picnic areas and 80 playgrounds. There are swimming pools, tennis and racquet ball courts, and dozens of golf golf courses as well as professional baseball, hockey and football teams including the Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Lovers of art, music, dance and theater enjoy a wealth of galleries and museums like the Tampa Museum of Art, Museum of Science & Industry and University of South Florida's Contemporary Art Museum. Broadway musicals and operas excite patrons continually at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Lowry Park Zoo entertains families with frequent events as does the award-winning Florida Aquarium.

The Tampa lifstyle is further enhanced by several annual events including the Gasparilla Pirate Fest, Tampa's own version of Mardi Gras, the annual Strawberry Festival, and the MacDill AFB Air Show. Thanks to wonderful weather there are dozens of arts and crafts shows, parades, street festivals year-round.

The University of South Florida, University of Tampa, and Hillsborough Community College campuses plus other smaller insitutions of learning add an academic flavor to the area.

World-class medical care is available at Tampa General, University Community Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Tampa and at St Joseph's Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital and many other smaller health care providers.

In Tampa and the surrounding Hillsborough and Pasco County communities of Temple Terrace, Brandon, Lutz, Wesley Chapel, Land O'Lakes and Zephyrhills, there are homes and condos from the most luxurious to the very affordable. There is something for everyone on the Tampa Bay Florida real estate market. And with recent home price declines, there are very attractive bargains to be found right now.

For more information on popular Tampa Bay communities, including golf course communities, visit my Tampa Florida website. I'd be delighted to show you all that Tampa Bay Florida has to offer. You may also E-Mail Me or call me on my cellphone at (813) 263-6806 for immediate service.

Selling Your Tampa Bay Home Now Might Be A Smart Move

At first it might sound odd, but right now might be the best time to sell your Tampa Bay, Florida home.

Every home has things about it that you wish you could change. You may or may not have noticed these issues when you bought the home but you can't fix them now for various reasons. Maybe the cost would drive your investment in the home beyond what the local neighborhood would support. Or, maybe your home cannot be changed to suit your current needs and desires because of its physical structure, the lot size, it's locale, or changes in youe own personal circumstances. Maybe it was near a great school when you bought it, but now the kids are grown and that school nearby is just a source of noise and traffic congestion. Realtors call these home problems, it's "unchangeables."

"But why is right now a good time to sell when prices have dropped as much as 20%," you ask. Here's why. While the price you can get for your current home may be down, so is the price of a home that doesn't have it's drawbacks, or "unchangeables." With recent home price declines and interest rates at historically low levels, NOW may be the right time to step up to the home you originally wanted but just couldn't afford.

Let's take an example. Supposing you bought your home three or four years ago for $300,000, but it has lost 20% of its value and can now be sold for closer to $240.000 -- down $60,000. But, the home you originally wanted that sold then for $425,000 is now down by that same 20% to $340,000, a drop of $85,000, almost one and a half times the reduction your own current home took.

And with so many homes currently on the market, if the seller of that $425,000 home that's now worth only $340,000 needs to sell, it is very possible that, with the help of an aggressive Realtor, you can negotiate that price down even lower. Chances are that if you could afford the home you paid $300,000 for 3 or 4 years ago, you can probably afford the home you always wanted if you buy it now that prices are so depressed.

As a bonus, when home prices start to rebound, you'll not only have the nicer home, but that new home's price will rise even faster than your old one with those troublesome "unchangeables."

For help in finding the right Tampa Bay Florida home for you and your family, visit Cheryl Stimac's Tampa Florida Real Estate website. For more immediate help, call Cheryl at Red Shoe Realty, LLC on her cell phone at 813-263-6806 or E-Mail her today. You'll be glad you did.