How Tampa Bay Flooding can and will affect local real estate market, closings, property condition

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Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and Expert, talks to Shawn Yesner of Yesner Law and Arnie  and David Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about the recent flooding in Tampa Bay and how it will affect the local Real Estate market, closings and property condition on The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show.

Andrew starts off with a joke about how lots of homeowners have suddenly become owners of waterfront properties because of the recent flooding in several areas of Tampa.

One of the impacts of the recent flooding is the delay in getting homes on the market. Andrew talks about the homes that are getting ready to go on the market but can't because they can't get the photos taken. He advices the sellers to be prepared to take their realtor's guidance to wait until a decent weather day to take photos. It's better not to rush and not take photos while you have a lake in your front yard. Although it's fun to joke about it, it wouldn't be in the best interest of the property and the seller.

This brings up another topic - Disclosures. If water gets in your house due to flooding, as a seller, you must disclose any defects or any issues like this.

Flooding brings up a lot of issues for Real Estate agents and brokers as well as for home sellers and buyers. It can cause things to be tense, can cause confusion because buyers could be sitting there waiting for homes to get on the market but there aren't any.

Arnie adds that it also causes delays in closing because they can't get repairs done on the house. Shawn also talks about an incident that happened recently wherein the realtor who had called him because they were doing a walk through. There were some normal settlement cracking but because of all the rain, water seeped through the cracks and it started to destroy the baseboards on the inside of the house. They talked about Force Majeure or Acts of God and all the clauses included in the contract to help delay the closing.

The recent flooding have affected a lot of areas and not just South Tampa like Wesley Chapel, Hillsborough Avenue, up in Northwest Tampa. They can see the impacts on their clients because buyers don't want to go out and look, the sellers don't want to put their home on the market.

David also talks about how they are getting calls from realtors asking for inspection periods to be extended or pushed back. Because of these delays, it will also cause a backlog. The appraisers who are not doing much right now because of the push backs will then get a whole slew of them at the same time. Same thing with photographers. It doesn't mean that your home is not going to go on the market but sellers should expect some delays and some curb balls which you they don't normally see when it's sunny and dry. It also doesn't mean that the closing will be pushed back or that your home won't be on the market on time, it's just that things are going to be a bit tighter because of the backlogs.

Shawn also talks about the importance of sellers disclosing. If home sellers don't disclose, things could really get complicated and could be really litigious and can cause big fights. If your home is already on the market, it would be advisable to re disclose if your house got flooded or if you found some other defect to avoid any issues later on. 

To get more Tampa Bay Real Estate news and advice from Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor, tune in to The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show on 970 WFLA - Tampa Bay every Sundays at 10 am.