Tampa Real Estate Blog

Welcome to a new era in home borrowing, where long-term mortgages and home equity loans are taking their place alongside AARP cards and pension checks as never before. About 25% of all Americans over age 65 have yet to pay off their home loans, up from 11% in 1983, according to a Boston College analysis [...]

Few [tag]remodeler[/tag]s have warm and fuzzy relationships with their [tag]contractor[/tag]s. Indeed, most have horror stories about workers who show up late or not at all, jack up their prices after they start and don’t clean up after themselves. But contractors have gripes, too. According to a survey of 400 contractors undertaken by the Opinion Research [...]

Three dozen [tag]South Florida home builders[/tag] and real estate agents mingled last week at Buster’s Bar & Grill in downtown Delray Beach. Standing only feet apart, they shouted pleasantries over the deafening din of Elton John’s Rocket Man and Steve Miller’s Fly Like An Eagle. The music might have been more appropriate during the past [...]

Rent rates are high, price limit of about $500 a month and a desire to live alone won’t make the search easy. So what can you find in terms of [tag]South Tampa area rentals[/tag]? From [tag]studios and efficiencies to apartments and duplexes[/tag], “it” spots such as Hyde Park, Davis Islands and the Bayshore and Palma [...]

Many well-to-do spend more than $4,000 a year on home repair and maintenance, according to research by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. With a bit of forethought, however, you can ratchet down that number in a big way. Just follow this plan. Start your roster with a general handyman, that’s- someone who has [...]

As the nation’s housing market cools, there’s a rush to snap up [tag]undeveloped property[/tag] as buyers stake their claim on everything from New England creek-front parcels, to mountainous woodlands in Tennessee, to big-sky vistas in Montana. Some people are buying dream lots now, while the land is available and prices affordable, with plans to one [...]

Every boom has a dark side. The merger mania of the 1980s produced insider trading scandals. The ’90s stock bubble was busted for biased investment research. And so it is with real estate, the hottest market of the past eight years. The urge to cash in on rising home values has spawned a growing share [...]

If you are thinking about [tag]building[/tag] a house or [tag]renovating[/tag] your current home, first read “Be Your Own House Contractor, Fifth Edition” by longtime home builder Carl Heldmann. This very valuable new book explains, according to the author, how to shave at least 25 percent off [tag]construction costs[/tag] of a new house. More important, it [...]

Staging a house helps it sell, but who should pay for it? From a non-existent profession a generation or so ago, [tag]home stagers[/tag] have become a force to be reckoned with in the [tag]real estate[/tag] industry. Stagers claim they turn sow’s ears into silk purses every day, and make pots of money for their clients. [...]

[tag]Moving your home[/tag], especially long distance, can cost you a mint if you want [tag]full-service packing and shipping[/tag]. That might be your only option if you have one of the larger McMansions or your apartment is full of antique furnishings that need to be protected. For those who can rough it a little, there are [...]