Don’t Make these common home buyer mistakes about commute times to work and check out the house at night!

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.

Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor and Real estate expert talks with David Diaz from Waterstone Mortgage about common mistakes home buyers in Tampa Bay make.

As a home buyer, you should do your due diligence by checking out the home at different times of day and night. It will give you an idea of what the actual commute time and how the traffic is at different hours or days if this is an important factor to you. You will also get an idea of what the neighborhood is like at different hours. Andrew shares that there are a lot of home buyers  who do not do their due diligence before buying end up having to sell their home. He also talks about how buyers will usually have a period of due diligence with the contract when they are in the inspection period. Every contract may be different but there are usually terms wherein the buyer is allowed to cancel for whatever reason during the inspection period.

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.

3 Things That Sabatoge Your Home Purchase

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.

Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor, Andrew Duncan, talks to David Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about 3 things that can sabotage your home purchase and could affect the mortgage process.

Changing jobs

Let your lender know because everything needs to be properly documented. The lender needs to know that your new income will still be sufficient for you to purchase your home. What a lot of people don't realize is that when they get approved in the beginning of the process,  all of those will be re-checked and verified at the very end.

Acquiring new debt

Buying new furniture, a new car or even appliances on credit while you are buying a new house could be a big mistake. If you can hold off from buying the furniture, etc, until after the closing, please do. This could be an issue when the lenders re-check your credit. It could also affect your debt to income ratio and other things.

Moving money around or making big purchases

The lender is qualifying you based on your whole picture. There are so many different buckets you need to get approved for like your debt to income ratio, what you have in the bank. If you need to make a purchase or sometimes there are some payments like medical things happen, just do yourself a favor and let your lender know so they can come up for a proper solution for you.

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.

Examine Your Refinancing Options in Today’s Market

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.

With everything that’s going on with the Fed and interest rates, there are many opportunities out there for people to save some money and lower payments, and refinancing is a great option for that. Today I’m joined again by the other half of the Duncan Duo, Mike Yates, to discuss some of the refinancing options out there and the scenarios people should look at when refinancing their mortgage.

One of the best and easiest refinances that is perfect for our Tampa market would be the VA loan, because we do have a lot of veterans that have purchased homes through VA financing. The VA streamline loan is a really easy loan in that there aren’t any income restrictions or appraisal requirements. Basically, it allows for a refinancing of a home with just a title search. If you are a veteran, look at your rate and compare it to other rates today. Or just call Mike and he’ll do it for you.

One of the things people often struggle with when refinancing is weighing the cost to refinance versus their savings. A common complaint related to this is paying the closing costs. Most of the time, as long as you have equity in the home, the closing costs get rolled into the loan so you don’t have to pay it out of your own pocket.

"As long as you have equity, the cost of refinancing shouldn’t be a problem."

Since interest rates are so low right now, refinancing is a great option for people who bought homes back when rates were much higher. Don’t be surprised if this makes sense for you, even if you’ve made a purchase not very long ago, especially if you’re planning on being in the home a long time. That would make it easier to refinance and lock in that low rate right now. Everyone has different financial needs, so it’s important to remember that you can also skip a payment most of the time with a refinancing.

Thanks so much for visiting with us today. Make sure to follow us on all our channels for more information regarding refinancing or real estate in general. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call or send us an email.

Thinking of buying a fixer upper in Tampa Bay? Here are some tips from Tampa's #1 Realtor

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.

Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor, Andrew Duncan, talks to Richard Vasquez of Artisan Insurance and Arnie Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage about tips and advice for buyers who plan to purchase a fixer upper. 

If you are thinking about buying a fixer upper, you need to be prepared to pay for repairs. You also need to plan for competition because there is a lot of competition among investors when it comes to fixer uppers and foreclosures. You need to make sure to hire an inspector or contractor who can give you a dollar amount of the repairs so you'll know what you're getting yourself into. 

From an insurance perspective, Richard talks about some obstacles a buyer will encounter when it comes to this type of property. Insurance companies don't want to insure homes that have existing damage or have potential hazards. Fixer uppers are good bargains but there are some insurance considerations you need to factor in.

From a mortgage perspective, Arnie talks about some programs they offer for fixer upper homes like renovation loans that can be put on top of the purchase price. They also offer an escrow hold back program.

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.

9 reasons why your Home may not be selling

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.

Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor talk about 9 reasons why your home may not be selling. He has David Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage and Richard Vazquez from Artisan Insurance as guests on The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show.

Seller tends to be overconfident. Being in a seller's market, sellers tend to be overconfident and might price the home too high.

The home might need some TLC. Sometimes the home isn't in the best condition. 

Title issues can cause some buyers to get spooked away.

Andrew talks about how important it is to have professional photos and videos for each listing. Getting online attention is very important because online viewing is like the first showing because the photos and videos are the first things that a buyer sees. Videos make a big difference because it gives buyers an idea of the floor plan even without being physically there. This is one of the reasons why The Duncan Duo sells a lot of houses outside the country.

It might also be a problem with agent, Some agents may not be experienced enough or don't do a lot of business. The Duncan Duo pride themselves of putting in thousand of hours coaching and training their agents to give the best service to their customers.

The house smells bad - dog/pet smell - turns people off. It turns buyers off emotionally.

Appliances are old which might give an impression that the home is old, It also speaks of how the house has been taken care off.

The last but not the least is sometimes the home is normal. Sometimes if home doesn't sell, it doesn't mean there's something wrong. It just means timing isn't there yet. Maybe the right buyer hasn't come along yet.

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 Brexit & UK leaving the EU affects interest rates & potential impact on luxury Tampa Real Estate

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.

Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor talk about how Brexit and the UK's decision to leave the EU is going to impact US housing and interest rates. He has David Diaz of Waterstone Mortgage and Richard Vazquez from Artisan Insurance as guests on The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show.

David says that anytime there is bad news in the economy, there's great news for rates. Because of what is happening right now, all talks in the early part of the year about rates increasing has gone out the window. This is one impact that is actually benefiting home buyers. 

Florida is an international Real Estate market so even things that happen outside the country impacts the local Real Estate market. This would impact, more specifically, the Luxury market which gets a lot of international sales, a lot from the European market. It's not a big market to begin with so if you pull away buyers from that market, it will have a negative pressure on price which will cause prices to drop.

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.