Seminole Heights Real Estate Recovering?

I have been watching the listings and prices in our neighborhood, and while my observations are not scientific by any means, I think I am seeing an uptick in both buying activity and prices....I use Zillow (not religiously....there are plenty of bugs) as an unofficial gauge.....it shows recently sold properties and properties for sale....my estimated value has climbed almost $100K over the past couple of months....for awhile it had the lowest estimated value in the area, which didn't make sense to me since we have a double lot. Again, Zillow is NOT an accurate valuation tool, but you can sort of pick up on trends by looking at the sold properties. While some properties have been on the market forever, I do see some movement, and if something is priced right, it sells, unlike the way it had been for awhile where nothing was selling no matter what the price was. My next door neighbor has put his house on the market again at a lower price....I will be curious to see what happens and when. I wish him luck.....
I received our TRIM notice this week, and I was quite happy with it....almost $2K down from last year. That's a lot of wood!

Silver Lining in Property Value Decline?

I checked my tax assessed value on the Hillsborough County Property Assessor's site (http://www.hcpafl.org/www/index.shtml) and was really shocked to see what my assessed value had dropped to.....I know it's not a sales price, and it's due to flucuation...and in this market, we will not be selling for some time anyway......but as a gauge, it's scary to think houses could lose value this quickly. I won't go into actual numbers.......it's public information, so anyone can access anyone's assessment. My shiny, happy moment was when I did the "Tax Estimator" tool......and I wasn't even accounting for the extra $25K in homestead exemption from the new tax amendment. It made me smile...just a little......and I think if this valuation is still standing when TRIM notices come out this summer, I might even dance that envelope around the living room for a bit.....instead of the usual immediate hiding in a drawer treatment.

Not Anytime Soon

Ok, we may be looking to sell.....but our to do list is huge! I don't know when we'll be ready......and since the market is so bad right now, things have to be in good shape. Not that we are falling down or anything, but sprucing up is definitely in order. So I guess we will be around for a little while anyway......but still...if you know anyone interested in a larger house in OSH.....point them in my direction....there might be a reward involved...like....a six pack or a case of cheetos.....(on a budget, you know).

Sad News

Well thankfully the AC is fixed for good....and the bills should be drastically lower! That's the good news. The bad news is that after our hard work (well, Mike's) and being totally in love with this house, we are deeply saddened to have made the decision to sell......not a decision we take lightly, and not one we had planned on doing this soon (the tax bill just went down for crying out loud!) but other commitments and circumstances beyond our control have facilitated this decision.
Do me a big favor-Pass The Word Around! It will be a special kind of person who will fall in love with the house as I did.....big old houses are not for everyone. It is a commitment of both time and money. I know there is someone out there who will love this house as much as I do.....I just hope I find him or her soon.....I want to sell soon.....I hate having a house on the market for extended periods of time, I'm not that neat! The house still needs a little bit of work, the previous owners did a lot, we did some, including the new roof last year......but nothing major.....we had an extremely thorough inspection done when we bought in '05, and nothing really bad was cited.....just the expected, replace some wood here and there.....most of the problems in the inspection were fixed by replacing the roof......the landscaping is not finished....we will continue to work on it. I think the biggest selling point will be the size of the house (3,036 sf). Not a lot of choices in this neighborhood if you want a big house, particularly on a double lot. Heck, my neighbor's house is for sale for $650K.....granted, it's beautiful and much more "done" than this house, he really did an extensive and quality job on it. Size is the key factor here.....4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, huge living room, dining room, den, office, front parlor, laundry room and kitchen with a walk in pantry. An interesting history doesn't hurt either......an elevated water tower in 1915 looked to have provided water for the newly platted neighborhood.....people were coming up to the spigot in front by the "Water 10 cents" sign up into the 70s. Boarding house, bordello, halfway house and back to an awesome single family house is quite an interesting life. Plus it is the homiest, most comfortable, welcoming house I've ever lived in except for maybe the cottage on Sebago Lake up in Maine that my papa built just shortly after this was built. Now I'm getting emotional (again). Forgive my rambling......it is an awesome house, please let someone know it is available; I am asking $500K....we'll see where that goes......I'm happy to talk to anyone about the house....but I will only show the house by appointment; I have dogs who need to be stuffed in the car and taken for a ride when I show it......bad vibes for potential buyers to be mauled while looking at their potential next house.
Thanks for reading my rambling........and please pass the word.....

Think Tampa's Market is Overpriced?

I got this from my eBay "widget" at the bottom of my blog page. A professionally restored 4,000 square foot bungalow in Dilworth, NC for $969,900! I wonder what THEIR taxes are....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150110578499&category=12605

Oh Well......

Although we are happy to be able to take the new sod off life support with the coming of what appears to be "rainy season", it does present some challenges in our outside projects. It has been a little wet to start the siding project......if it clears up enough today we may start pulling some wood off, but chances are we'll have to wait until next week. Of course the weather may pose some scheduling problems for the next several months...but we will just have to work around it the best we can...this is one of those "have to do" projects that will soon affect the inside with water damage if not addressed. Yeah, we should've done it over the winter......hindsight is 20/20, eh? We will continue to plug away at other stuff we've been working on.....my daughter *had* to paint her room yesterday, and that didn't get finished, so we will tie that up today while she enjoys a birthday party (sucks to be 13).
On another note, I noticed that the house/apartments across the street went up for sale (5309 Branch), no sign yet, but I'm on "ziprealty.com" quite often watching the neighborhood real estate scene and this popped up. This is a bungalow with an apartment carved into it (in law apt?) and two really odd back buildings which contain rental units; one appears to be a garage with an upstairs apt, the other could possibly have been a storage/shelter unit with another apt. The bungalow was built in the twenties, and the other units were build in the 40s/50s. They want $375K for it....I don't know if that's good-they seemed to have had a really hard time getting and keeping it rented, but in speaking with a former tenant, we were told the owners were not willing to make any updates or even let the tenants make updates, and they wanted a pretty steep rent for the condition/size. The main house has been vacant for some time now, and the other two back units just vacated last week. I hate having a vacant property across from us. I think it needs some major updating, but I'm sure the main house could be converted back to a one unit pretty easily. I've been in there once, and the floors are in great shape, and it has a fireplace(a sore spot with me as I feel I have the only house in Seminole Heights without one.I have a charming indoor industrial style sprinkler system, but no fireplace!) If your looking for something to buy...take a look..we would love to have some decent neighbors across the street!