Business Talk
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In this podcast, we explore the passion and vision behind successful businesses, uncovering the secrets to their success and learning about the innovative products and services they offer. Whether you're a fellow entrepreneur looking for insights or simply curious about the businesses in your area, this podcast is your go-to source for inspiration and practical advice.
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Business Talk
Navigating Real Estate Markets in Central Florida
The real estate landscape is constantly shifting, and nowhere is this more evident than in Central Florida. Alena Rivera, owner of Exit Realty Premier Legacy and a 15-year industry veteran, joins us to decode the current market dynamics and offer practical guidance for buyers and sellers alike.
Drawing from her extensive experience spanning from Minnesota to Orlando, Alena paints a clear picture of today's housing market: inventory levels have returned to pre-COVID norms, properties typically remain available for 45-90 days, and price corrections are becoming commonplace.
For those contemplating a purchase, Alena's message is refreshingly direct: now is the time to act. With sellers increasingly motivated and willing to offer concessions, buyers wield significant negotiating power. She emphasizes the critical importance of proper pre-approval (not just pre-qualification) and building the right support team. The most successful buyers understand not just what they qualify for, but what monthly payment makes sense when factoring in insurance, taxes, HOA fees, and maintenance reserves. Alena also spotlights emerging opportunities in areas like St. Cloud, Lake County, and Sanford, where new developments signal strong appreciation potential.
Sellers aren't left without guidance either. Alena advocates for decluttering, deep cleaning, and making strategic minor repairs rather than investing in major renovations. Her pricing philosophy centers on market realism – setting prices based on recent comparable sales rather than emotional attachments or unrealistic expectations.
As a certified military relocation specialist, Alena takes particular pride in helping service members navigate their unique challenges. She shares a powerful story of saving a military family $20,000 at closing through skillful negotiation – a testament to how the right representation can transform the real estate experience.
Ready to explore your options in today's market? Connect with Alena at Alena@exitpremierlegacy.com or 407-801-8219, or browse available properties at orlandolistingpros.com and discover how her expertise can guide your next real estate move.
Welcome back everybody to Business Talk, the show, where we dive deep into industries that keep our world moving. I'm your host, didier, and in today's episode I have the pleasure of speaking with Elena Rivera. She's the owner of Exit Realty Premier Legacy. Good afternoon, elena. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:Hello, good afternoon, didier, I'm doing great, thank you. Thank you for having me on your show.
Speaker 1:Again, again, love to be here.
Speaker 2:Love to talk real estate with you, my favorite thing to do and love having you as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1:So, listeners, in each episode, our guests share practical tips and valuable advice that can help you navigate life and stay ahead in your own journey. If you're enjoying this content, make sure you to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Stick around until the end, because Elena is going to share a great, powerful story that she's had with the customer, and it actually highlights the impact of her services for you guys that are listening. So, with that being said, we're actually going to talk a couple different things. We're going to go into a little bit of background, but we're going to move more forward in discussing market trends and insights as it affects real estate Advice for buyers, advice for sellers. You know you guys out there definitely want to know what's going on, up to date with the market, and we're probably going to talk a little bit about local knowledge. So, with that being said, elena, take it away.
Speaker 1:Let's start off with maybe a little background and then we can go into market trends and I'll have a couple questions to ask you.
Speaker 2:Awesome, okay, yeah, so yeah, I've been in the industry, I would say, for about 15 years now, with my experience between starting in Minnesota with a top broker over there to you know, moving down to the Orlando Central Florida area and, you know, just going through the whole process of being a real estate agent to then wanting to continuously grow and set new goals and became an owner a few years ago of an exit franchise in Maitland and then I branched off and I started another brokerage, exit realty premier legacy, in Orlando. So for the last three years I've been an exit owner, franchise owner, and I'm just, I can't say enough about how, how blessed and just what the experience has been, how, how much it's taught me. It's not easy, but, you know, keep on going and growing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, congratulations. And again, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it correct. That's right. So let's get into some market trends and insights. You know, how would you describe the current real estate market in the area?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean we're still moving right. We still have sellers that need to sell, buyers that need to buy. I do love this industry because there's we're always, there's always work for us or we're always busy if we're, you know, really working our business. And yeah, we have more houses, more inventory right now in the Central Florida area than we've seen since, you know, pre-covid.
Speaker 2:So more houses are sitting on the market a little longer. I would say average number of days that they're staying on the market before they actually go under contract would be anywhere from like 45 to sometimes even up to 90 days. We're seeing in certain areas that they're sitting until, you know, the right buyer comes along and we are seeing a lot of price decreases or corrections, if you will. We're seeing those prices kind of, you know, slowly level off, right and correct to what the market value was, again pre COVID, because we went through that crazy competitive, you know, over asking price and bidding and you know, although I still do see some bidding wars in certain locations, it's all about the location right, where they're purchasing, where they're they're looking. Recently I sold a home in Longwood, sweetwater area, and I would say there are probably 10 to 12 buyers for every home we were looking at, because they didn't stay on the market right so as we were looking, they were going off the market.
Speaker 2:It was like in the $600,000 price range too, you know. So we're talking over half a million, and there's still competitive offers happening in certain areas Desirable.
Speaker 1:You've kind of touched on this a little bit a little bit, elena, when you talked about buyer's market, seller's market or something in between right now. So that was interesting that you kind of mentioned that too. But are there any trends that you're seeing right now in home prices, inventory or interest rates?
Speaker 2:Trends, I mean. So we've kind of been played with, I would say, for our interest rates, right, where we were expecting them to go drop down to the low sixes, high fives, but they've remained steady, I would say, above 6.5% for the you know average conventional buyer right now.
Speaker 2:um so, with interest rates, yeah, we're still in the you know the high sixes, and with prices, you know, depending on the area you know so it's really important that it's you know that the agents are doing their work and their due diligence with pricing fairly, competitively, not over pricing, because that too, that's part of our problem is why these houses are sitting for so long is, um, you know, they're not priced fairly. They're not priced based on the other houses, comparable homes in their neighborhood, what those have recently sold for. The data does not lie Right.
Speaker 2:So as much as the seller thinks that their house may be worth, you know, 50,000 more than what the last home sold for. You know, the data doesn't lie.
Speaker 1:So it's really important, right, and it's not always the case as well. You know there are listeners, or you know people who are listening to the show as well. That you know maybe are first time home buyers, right, we have, we have those as well out there, people looking to buy a home for the first time. What should they do, or what should they know? Any kind of knowledge you want to give them in terms of what they in terms of jumping into today's market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Would love to Thank you. So, most importantly, right, like, look for the expert guidance, look for the realtors that will help guide them through. If they don't have a realtor, they can always come to me, or you know, our Orlando Re realtor association has a lot of them as well. But, um, my team here at exit, you know, we, we love to guide, because it's not just the process of finding a realtor and looking at houses, but it's getting connected with the right team. Right, you have your lender involved, so that lender needs to be fitting for your needs, you know, based on your schedule, for the buyer's schedule, are they available, are they communicating promptly? But also, with the lender side too, it's important for them to get pre-approved right. They need that pre-approval or pre-qualification letter Actually, no, let me take that back Pre-approval letter, which means they've gone through the process of verifying their documents, their taxes, their employment, their debt to income, all of that.
Speaker 2:The lender will do that to then accurately or more accurately, say look, based on what I'm seeing here, based on the documents you've provided me, you are qualified for up to, let's say, 400,000. However, while they may qualify for 400,000, they mostly want to know what their budget is what are they comfortable paying per month? Right, and affordability, how much do they want to keep their budget at? Because then that will, you know, determine what price of home they should be looking for. Because there's also they got to have to factor in. I think a lot of people forget that there's also property insurance, property taxes, hoa, you know, like all those things add on to the mortgage as well. So it's important to really do the math, but again working with the right team to be able to identify what is the perfect home, what is the perfect price range for that family.
Speaker 1:And also outside of the mortgage. I mentioned electricity, water, sewage, like there's so many.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, trash all these things um that come into that play exactly, yeah, they say to have at least six months in reserves, you know, for in case anything goes wrong at the house. Um, you know, plumbing issues, roof leak, yeah you never know.
Speaker 1:I think that's it. You never know. So that's very uh well, very well stated. Are there any common mistakes you see buyers are making right now?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest one is not really knowing what they're qualified for, so not going through the process of submitting their documents, right, they're just doing that online application that says you know, tell me how much you make, tell me how much you owe, and then boom, they're issued. Issued this pre qualification letter and then they're going out shopping. And I think that's another reason why we're seeing a lot of houses pending offers fall through because that buyer wasn't successfully pre approved or accurately pre approved.
Speaker 2:Right, they were just they submitted an application and the lender just said here you go, go shopping for a house at this rate without really knowing like, okay, what can you afford per month based on, again, all those factors HOA, you know, taxes, insurance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it all, it definitely all adds up. So what's your take on for a buyer that's wanting to buy now versus waiting for market conditions to improve?
Speaker 2:oh.
Speaker 2:I say go go buy now, right now we also have um. So in addition to being a buyer's market right, um houses are sitting longer on the market. Sellers, you know they're. They're selling for a reason. You know whether they're severe. You know highly motivated and need to move tomorrow, or you know they're they're just willing. They're more willing right now to offer sellers concessions.
Speaker 2:So I'm seeing a lot of sellers, you know, pay for closing costs to help put down. You know down payment money, be generous when it comes to fixing certain things, and you know that come up in the inspection, especially if it's related to the four points your roof, your AC, your HVAC, your plumbing and your electrical work. If there's anything wrong with you know any issues or safety hazards that come up. With those, I always say go for it, negotiate, negotiate right, because now is the time.
Speaker 2:We're also seeing, you know, people not being able to afford their mortgage payments, so they need to sell, so getting out of that before they go into foreclosure. We're also seeing an increase in short sales happening right now where they owe more on their house their mortgage is more than what their house is worth. So there's a lot happening which gives the advantage to the buyer and additionally, we have Hometown Heroes, which is a down payment assistance program where they're giving up to $30,000 to qualified buyers to be able to purchase that home. So there's a lot of resources out there. It's really just a matter of again working with the right people that know about the resources and know how to negotiate, that know how to look for the homes that have been sitting on the market maybe 90 days or a little more, motivated at that point where it's easier to ask for that seller's credit or ask for the sellers to buy down the rate to make the monthly payment more affordable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's well stated, you know. Let's talk about advice for sellers. What's the best way for a seller to prepare their home for a fast sale?
Speaker 2:So declutter, right, I would say declutter less is more. I don't want to go. I don't. Personally too, I'm very simplistic, right, my eyes go crazy when I go in and I see things everywhere, um, so we really want to. You know, by getting it ready, you want to clean, deep clean, declutter, um, I would even say in certain areas, if you need a fresh paint of coat. Clutter, I would even say in certain areas if you need a fresh paint of coat. You know, fix little electrical things If you can. You know, go to Ikea and get a nice cute little fixture to replace this old fashioned one in the entranceway you know because it's, it's all about.
Speaker 2:You know that. First appeal, you know that wow factor.
Speaker 2:Exactly Right so walking in like what does it smell like? Is it clean? What is it, you know, like? Is it, you know, completely welcoming and wide open, or are there things everywhere that it's like, oh my gosh, there's too much you know? So I would say, yeah, don't, don't invest in, you know, unless it's necessary. There's something with plumbing or some and something major. But I would say, don't invest in, you know, redoing your kitchen and your flooring and all of that, because that's always a way to negotiate too. I like to price it accordingly, because I know when a buyer walks in, they're going to say I need to replace this carpet, I need to replace the bathroom.
Speaker 2:So we already are discounting that for the price and then, you know, by looking at the analysis they can see that it's true. So I think that's you know, important for you know sellers to really know what's happening in their area, to really know what the homes are selling for in their particular neighborhood and community. Right, because every community, every subdivision is different. It's different from one block to another.
Speaker 1:I like how you said that is different from one block to another. I like how you said that I was. My other question was how important is the pricing strategy? Um, right now and you kind of mentioned on that too as well yeah, I I would like to add um.
Speaker 2:So definitely, you know, like if it's overpriced, you know, because I know some are like oh, no, I've seen it happen where you know, they know that the ac might need some work or um, you know they might need new carpet or something. So they they in their minds they want to start higher because they know that people are going to negotiate right, but that's not always the smartest thing to do. Again, price it fairly with the market, because then people see like, oh, based on the comparables in the area this house is priced fairly and then you can go to negotiations from there, right.
Speaker 2:but also what I've seen work is some in some cases we've listed it a little under market value, because then that draws in attention and it brings that multiple offer situation where then you're getting a little more than what you asked for instead of having to lower the price, because I've seen a lot of price reductions happening recently too, yes, a lot.
Speaker 1:And that makes sense based on where we're at right now. Are there any hidden gems or underrated areas buyers should be looking at?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, I mean so in the Orlando area. Right, the closer you are to Orlando, the more expensive it's going to be. However, there are certain areas that are a little more affordable. But what I'm seeing is, you know, anywhere near railways, railroads, any new divisions coming in, any new planning developments happening, you know, I think it's smart to purchase in that area because like be ready, because they know like that's going to be a neighborhood.
Speaker 2:you know the the clientele they want to attract right, because they expect the houses to appreciate and go up in value over time.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. You say that. What about hospitals?
Speaker 2:Hospitals as well, hospitals so, like St Cloud, lake County, deltona, lake County, deltona, deland, out there, sanford, sanford, you know, with the new, the railway system there as well, lots of new developments coming, you know. Just think about, like, where is their land on the outside of what we already have? Right, that's where it's expected to grow and appreciate. But right now you can get it more affordable. You can even buy a new house right now, new construction home for in the low 300s so yeah, low 300s.
Speaker 2:It's housing is definitely more affordable. However, the interest rate makes it a little more challenging to get our buyers qualified, so we're seeing a lot more co-signers happen. You know are involved with the contract.
Speaker 1:Oh, I understand that. So, as we're kind of wrapping up here, you know I was kind of mentioned about a story that I'd like for you to share, that kind of really. You know you sat back and you said, wow, I really helped this family, I helped this individual and it just it kind of really, what's the word I'm trying to? It really validates, right, that what I'm doing is making a difference. Anything that stands out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean lots of stories, right, I've helped save people from losing their homes, you know, from foreclosure and whatnot. That was actually recently, too, that that happened, but one that really stands out is I'm really honored to serve our military families. I work a lot with military families. I am certified, for I'm a certified military relocation specialist, and so I have had the privilege of, you know, giving back in that sense.
Speaker 1:I've had this family. I appreciate that as a veteran myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know and thank you for your service. Yes, it is, it is a true honor. And so you know I've had families that you know I've helped years ago that keep coming back to me because they trust me. And more recently, with the changes that happened recently, with the new law, or with the new rule where sellers are not required to pay the buyer's agent compensation Remember that came out august 17th of last year so sellers are not obligated they never were, but it's just in how we present it.
Speaker 2:Um. So this kind of came up when you know this military family wanted to sell and then purchase. Um, needless to say, they should have owed money at the end because of, you know, with their mortgage and all that. But I was able to negotiate on the purchase of their property for the seller to pay both my commission for the sale of their home so the the property that they were purchasing.
Speaker 2:I got him to pay for the sell sale of their home plus my commission for the purchase of their purchase right, so with that Right. So with that you know tactful negotiation strategies. But it was just a blessing because they were expecting to pay about $20,000 out of pocket, Wow and I was able to negotiate for them where they had nothing, nothing owed, and even got some money back towards closing costs, Because with VA loans there's no down payment required, 100% financing, so just their closing costs.
Speaker 1:so it's always a win when I get money for people at clothing? Yes, absolutely. They can tell how passionate you are about, about what you do, which is is phenomenal in itself. So, as we wrap up, could you provide our listeners a way to get a hold of your phone number as well as your website?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so we are. You know, elena, at exitpremierlegacycom, our website and our domain. If anybody wants to look for homes and see what's available in our area, it's orlandolistingproscom and they'll be able to access all of our properties for sale there and in the area. My phone number is 801-8219, text or a call, I'm fine with either and, yeah, I'm all over social media with those. Alena Rivera.
Speaker 1:Orlando broker.
Speaker 2:Orlando broker Alena.
Speaker 1:You got to love it.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you, Alena.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be part of this and hopefully we can have you back again in the near future.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. Thank you, Didier.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome. Thank you for tuning in to First Media Consulting Podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today To nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to firstmediaconsulting.