March 2016

Our Numbers Speak for Themselves in Tampa Bay

There are many Tampa Bay area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here to learn about our “Your Home Sold Guaranteed in 29 Days” program or for a free property valuation so you know what your home can sell for in today’s market. You may also call me at (813) 359-8990 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we just wanted to give a shout out to all our loyal clients and customers. We were recently at a RE/MAX conference learning about the latest in real estate trends and technology, and we received a few great awards.

The one we are most proud of is that we were ranked #6 in the world for RE/MAX teams. In a pool of over 100,000 agents, we take great pride in that honor. We owe all of our success to you and wanted to take a moment to thank you for helping us achieve this award.

What’s the advantage of hiring a team like ours? Well, it’s simple. We have a lot more resources, we sell more quickly, and we spend more on advertising than the average agent. You can see for yourself on our online reviews, where we have heard some great words from our past clients. Working with top agents like ourselves equals better service, better results, and an overall better experience. That’s how we operate here at The Duncan Duo.

To say thanks even more, we are going to be giving away a signed Tampa Bay Lightning hockey stick. As the official real estate agents of the Lightning, we get autographed memorabilia all the time, and we wanted to share the wealth. To enter your name in the drawing, all you need to do is follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube and post a comment about your favorite Tampa Bay Lightning moment over the last year. In the next week, we will pick the lucky winner of the signed hockey stick!

If you have any questions in the meantime, we are always here to answer them. Just give us a call or send us an email, and we’d be happy to help out!

Steven Stamkos Talks About His Favorite Memories Growing UP

Steven Stamkos Talks About HIs Favorite Memories Growing UP

Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay Lightning talks about his favorite memories and growing up in his hometown.

Steven Stamkos

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Its Tax Season! How you can use your refund to buy/improve home & talk to your lender before you file if buying

Listen as Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and expert talk to David and Arnie Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage as they share tips on how to use your tax refund to buy or improve your home.

Some people use it on down payment when buying a home. Some use them to pay their debt to be in a better position. Others can use it for furniture for their new home.

They also tell us how important it is to include your mortgage lender when doing your taxes if you have plans to buy a home. One needs to be careful of the deductions being filed since this could potentially affect your ability to qualify.

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.

Andrej Sustr & Valtteri Filppula Discuss Their Hometown

Andrej Sustr & Valtteri Filppula of Tampa Bay Lightning talk about their hometown and the great community they live in.

Andrej Sustr

Valtteri Filppula

Tampa Mortgage Update – 100% “Millenial” Conventional Financing, how to avoid PMI & escrow for taxes/insurance

Listen as Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and expert talk to David and Arnie Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about the Mortgage market because this is the time of the year when people start looking into their finances and they start deciding whether they're going to buy a home in Spring or the Summer. In Tampa Bay, the majority of moves and relocation happen during the Summer.

David and Arnie talk about the things that people need to do to prepare for qualifying for a mortgage. They discuss what the important steps they need to take if they plan to buy in June.

One of the issues is speed. Due to the lack of inventory right now, the homes that are on the market and are appropriately priced are getting multiple offers. If the buyer wants to get the home of their dreams, they have to move quickly. First step is getting pre-qualified.

They talk about the different down payment options and loan products. They also touch on private mortgage insurance (PMI) for loans, escrow for taxes. Bottom line is to talk to your local lender about what your goals are and know what options are available to you so you won't miss out in buying the home of your dreams.

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.

Andrej Sustr Discusses His Hometown

Andrej Sustr of Tampa Bay Lightning talks about his hometown and one of the world famous brewery's that originated there.

Andrej Sustr

Tampa Bay One of the Most Affordable Housing Markets but Mortgage Rates Top the Nation

Listen as Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and expert talk to David and Arnie Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about how Tampa Bay can be one of the most affordable housing markets but mortgage rates top the nation.

Though Tampa Bay is one of the most affordable markets in the country with medium and average priced homes hovering under the high $100s and low $200s, depending on where they are, according to an article in the Times, it has one of the highest mortgage rates in the country and why that could happen and how you can differentiate mortgage prices from mortgage costs.

There are a lot of factors that go into determining the interest rate for a consumer like the credit score, down payment amount, type of program and more. It is true though that different geographical areas have slightly different interest rates. David advises consumers to call local lenders and shop around for rates.

Arnie uses Georgia as an example. There the interest rates would be slightly lower because they charge a 1% origination fee which is 1% of the loan amount which will add to your cost. In Tampa Bay, they don't charge that point as a norm so rates would be higher. This is why they encourage consumers to shop around because somebody could advertise a super low rate but you end up paying for a bunch of points, costs and fees into that loan.

The lower the loan, the slightly higher the interest rate needs to be. There's a flat cost that a lender has to incur no matter what the loan is. The lower the price of the loan, the higher the fees need to be to help cover those hard costs.

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.

Braydon Coburn and Erik Condra Talk About making a difference in the environment

Braydon Coburn and Erik Condra of Tampa Bay Lightning talk about making a difference with the environment and keeping it clean for future generations.

Braydon Coburn

Erik Condra

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Alex Killorn and Anton Stalman Share the Importance of Having a Clean Environment

Alex Killorn and Anton Stralman of Tampa Bay Lightning share the importance of keeping the Earth clean for a better environment in the future.

Alex Killorn

Anton Stralman

Duncan Duo Real Estate Show On 970AM 3-13-16

Ben Bishop & Tyler Johnson Share the Importance of Cleaning the Environment

Ben Bishop and Tyler Johnson with Tampa Bay Lightning talk about cleaning up the environment and the importance of having a clean Earth.

Ben Bishop

Tyler Johnson

Duncan Duo Real Estate Show On 970AM 3-6-16

Duncan Duo Real Estate Show On 970AM 2-28-16

Duncan Duo Real Estate Show On 970AM 2-21-16

Duncan Duo Real Estate Show On 970AM 2-14-16

Tampa Bay Top Realtor talk about the best uses of Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC)

Listen as Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and expert talk to David Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about the best situations where you can use Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC). Some people can get in trouble because of using HELOC. They discuss examples of how you can make the best out of it by using it on a Jumbo loan, consolidating debt or for home improvements.

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.

How does Home Staging help sellers make more money and sells homes faster

Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and expert talks with Liliana Warr from ShowHomes Tampa about how staging a home helps sellers more money and sell homes more quickly.

The buyers need to be able to envision themselves living in the home. They discuss about how some home owners who are too attached to their personal stuff could affect the buyer because they won't be able to identify themselves in that home. Listen as they give useful tips and advice from these experts.

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.

Tampa and Sarasota Real Estate Statistics for Home Sales & Values for January 2016

Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and expert talks with David Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about the Tampa & Sarasota Real Estate Statistics for January 2016.

There has been an 8% year after year increase in the average sale price in Tampa. Inventory is up for the first time in several months - 4.1 months of inventory from a low of 2.9 months the previous month. Part of the inventory increase is because of the decrease in the number of sales. One thing Andrew noticed is that the luxury market is starting to get saturated again.

Sarasota stats after the month of January experienced a slight 1.2% increase in total sales while condos were down 5.2% and Manatee Single family homes were down 5.4 % from last year. There was a robust increase in sale price in both counties. Single family homes in Sarasota increased 21.3% and 10% in Manatee.

Listen as they talk about their analysis of the market behavior and what is affecting it.

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.