All aboard.

Next stop on our tour around “The City Beautiful”, is the “Antique District”. This remarkable astounding district is located in Orlando’s prestigious College Park area. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to be enchanted, for you are about to enter the dazzling world of antiques.

This is such an awesome diversion from everyday life. If you are interested in furniture, pottery, jewelry and yes girls, Vintage Clothing, I invite you to a fab fun day of shopping, exploring, oh ya and dare I say it—lunch.

There are several eateries located in the area. My fav is Ethos Vegan Kitchen. This cafe is strictly vegetarian; the homey atmosphere is a great place to enjoy blissfulness with a vegetarian flare. There are many delectable dishes on the menu, but I would suggest the pecan encrusted eggplant.

This approach to healthy living will leave your taste buds jumping for joy and begging for more. After sharing a delish meal, let’s go two doors down and pick out a bottle of wine from Tim’s Wine Market.

Their impressive wine list and the knowledgeable staff will entice you to try every single bottle. I assure you if you know nothing about wine, you will when you leave.

Next stop (sorry guys this is just for the gals, but you are welcomed to bring your wallets) is a small boutique that specializes in Couture. Ladies you will buy something here and never have to worry about someone wearing the same thing. Girls you know what I am talking about!

Well I don’t know about you but my feet hurt, my belly is full and my money is gone. I’ll catch you next time aboard the tour of the “City Beautiful”.

Ciao

Growing is good and it is always nice to be able to add new players to our team.

In Tampa, Karen Czarnik joined us the first of April. She worked as a locator in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Florida to be closer to her family. (At least that is what she says! We know the real reason is the weather!) But we are excited to have her. She has hit the ground running and has already started helping people find their perfect home.

In Orlando, Scott Swinson joined our Metrowest team and Wes Paxson joined our Colonial team back in February (sorry I’m late in recognizing you both.)

Scott worked with Century 21 for a number of years and has known our Metrowest manager since grade school. In just over a month he is already giving our veteran consultants a run for their money.

And our newest addition is Angelina Torres, also joining our Metrowest office. Today is her first day and we are very excited to have her. She comes to us most recently from doing new home sales for a local builder but has also worked with ERA Realty so she is no stranger to the real estate industry or meeting the customers’ needs. She is also a graduate of the University of Central Florida.

Apartments are offering some incredible deals and people are moving again so we are gearing up to meet our clients’ needs.

Many of the renters in the Gainesville market are looking for semester leases this time of year.  This can, and usually does, prove to be a very daunting and frustrating task.  While some complexes offer semester leases, they only offer a limited number so you have to act quickly when the lease term is offered.  Most renters don’t like to be in this situation and like to wait and see what else will come available.  This is a double-edged sword.  Some new options may open up or the existing offers will lease up in the same time leaving the renter with no options at all.  At this point, some renters will be tempted to sign a 12 month lease and attempt to sublet the apartment for the remaining months.  While this is not impossible, it is very difficult and time consuming.  Of course, the obvious downside to this scenario is that if the apartment doesn’t get sublet the original renter is responsible to pay the remainder of the lease whether they are living there or not.

The best advice that can be offered on how to handle this dillema is to act quickly when you find a complex offering semester leases.  Yes, another complex may start offering semester leases later, but at least you are settled and are no longer stressing to find an apartment.

This article was forwarded to me and is well worth reading by any individual property owner/investor.

There are always con artists looking for new ways to part honest people from their money. It appears that they have come up with one targeting unsuspecting, if not desperate, landlords.

Take a look at http://www.modbee.com/business/scam/story/220406.html

A similar scam targets roommates and usually begins by being contacted by someone out of the country who will send authentic looking checks or money orders in excess of the amount needed. They then ask that the excess be sent back to them only to find out later that their checks/money orders are fake.

A vacant apartment or room is painul enough, but sending money that you don’t have to a crook, now that would hurt!

When you are not redecorating your new apartment home or lounging at the pool, come out and enjoy Orlando’s night life. Orlando offers absolute total relaxation with endless pristine restaurants and a wide variety of museums, festivals and recreational entertainment. From East Orlando to the Southwest side of town you will experience the explosion of flavors from our many new restaurants in this exciting city.

Come join me for a bite to eat at Orlando’s newest European Bistro - La Creperia Café. This fab Bistro is centrally located in the Fashion Square Mall on East Colonial Drive. Your mouth will rejoice at the dazzling selection of nearly 70 items focusing on the sweet and savory crepes to mouth watering Paninis.

After enjoying the latest in cuisine, take a stroll with me around Lake Eola. You can walk off those extra pounds you acquired during your food fest while enjoying the lights and festive atmosphere the Lake has to offer. Be careful, you might fall in love with this area and want to claim it for your own. It gives you a big city atmosphere with a small town charm.

Join us weekly for more of the night life in the city beautiful. Until then I’ve got dinner to eat and lakes to walk.

Ciao!!!

Charis

A recent article in the Tampa Tribune warned “apartment rents are on the rise”.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/feb/14/bz-apartment-rents-are-on-the-rise/?news-money

The quote from the CEO of a large apartment builder and management company may seem ominous but on closer inspection he is talking about “in three to five years”.

What we are seeing right now and expect for the next year are terrific deals for the renter.

While some apartments are raising the rents slightly they are also offering some incredible incentives to lure immediate renters. We have many communities that are offering one, two and sometimes three months FREE.

Oftentimes they will prorate part or all of the special over the lease term, effectively lowering the monthly rent. The decrease can be dramatic!

For example a $1,000 apartment that is offering 2 months free prorated over a 12 month lease will cost $833 per month. That is a tremendous discount!

So, I’m not sure what will happen in three to five years, but I know right now is a GREAT time to be looking for an apartment.

With the recent condo craze/crash in Florida there are a lot of, what a friend of mine calls, accidental landlords. They bought hoping to flip quickly and now are stuck trying to rent them out.

For the renter, they represent a large source of quality housing, usually at a much lower rent. They can’t afford to sit on a vacant unit so they have to do whatever it takes to get them rented.

But even more importantly, they also tend to be more lenient on the qualifications to rent.

Large apartment communities are usually bound by rigid standards that they have to apply across the board. If you have a credit glitch or infraction with the law from errors made years ago you may find it hard to qualify with the big boys.

A private owner may be a great option to use while trying to repair that credit to be able to rent elsewhere or even buy later on.

On the flip side, they don’t always have the expertise or resources to deal with problems that may come up with the apartment (i.e. repairs). Be sure you discuss who will be responsible if something goes wrong in the property and make sure it is spelled out in the lease.

Has anyone been calling apartment complexes on the west side of Orlando?  There are apartments offering three months free rent!!! That’s $3000 or more on two and three bedrooms!  Metrowest, which is home to some thirty or so apartment communities had many try to convert to condos over the last two years.  When the market closed up and the buyers stopped buying, most of those conversions had no choice but to start renting again.  With so much availability out there and so few new renters coming to the area these communities had no choice but to spice up their move in specials to compete with their neighbors.  If your lease is coming up, or even if its not (depending on the special it may be worth breaking your lease and paying a month’s rent) this is certainly the best time to get the BEST DEAL on an apartment!

Renting in Gainesville can be a headache.  As we all know, there are a ton of options (a lot of the similar) from which to choose.  The problem lies in narrowing those options down to the few that fit your search criteria.  There are many choices to be made; furnished/unfurnished, washer/dryer, individual lease, and the list goes on.  Obviously price is a main concern, but a close second is usually location.  Many times these options clash with each other.  You can find an apartment in the price range you want but not the location or the amenities.  You can run around from place to place only to find out that the complex doesn’t allow pets, or doesn’t have a washer/dryer, or just isn’t available when you need it.  This can be extremely frustrating, especially with gas prices being so high.

Luckily, there is a way to avoid most of these problems.  Apartment Hunters can narrow your search for you and only show you the options that work for you.  All you have to do is contact us.  You can call us, email us, or just stop in the office.  Any way you choose you will have a personalized search tailored to your needs.

The days of driving around looking for an apartment, or worse, looking through the classified ads, are quickly disappearing.

Most people don’t have the time or patience for that and the best properties and the best deals usually can’t be found that way.

The internet has become a huge resource for people looking for a new home. But too often it has become a glorified ad, only telling you what the property wants you to know.

This is where an apartment locator can be a tremendous help. A true locator service differs from the sites that simply offer a searchable database. Again, these really are just ads from the apartment community. There is no one to talk to or ask questions about the property except the property personnel. Nothing against them, but their job is to sell you on their property not necessarily the best property for you.

A true apartment locator with personalized help should be able to offer both the database that you can search, but more importantly, an experienced local expert that you can talk to (or email). You can tell them exactly what your needs or wants are, what is important to you and what is not. They can often times make suggestions or properties or even areas that you may not have ever considered before.

Especially with the proliferation of the condo conversion and reversions back to rentals it can be difficult to know if a particular property is renting or not. Many private owners can offer significant deals but are difficult to find on your own.

It does not end up costing the renter any more to use a locator. They are paid by the apartment community out of their advertising budget and are under agreement to offer the same rates as to anyone just walking in.

Many times a good locator can save you a substantial amount of money by looking for specials that properties will offer at various times to try to quickly rent a particular unit.